DEFENCE

Armed Forces: Dental Services

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the ratio is of Defence Dental Service dentists to armed forces personnel; and what it was in each year since 1997.

Derek Twigg: holding answer 23 April 2007
	The following table shows the numbers of uniformed Defence Dental Service (DDS) dentists (as at 1 April in each year) against armed forces manning (as at 1 January in each year) from 1997 to 2006. The figures for 2007 have yet to be confirmed. The figures (including ratios) have been rounded to the nearest 10.
	
		
			   Service  d entists  Armed  forces manning  Ratio 
			 1997 250 210,820 1:840 
			 1998 250 210,140 1:840 
			 1999 250 208,640 1:830 
			 2000 250 207,620 1:830 
			 2001 250 205,650 1:820 
			 2002 270 204,680 1:760 
			 2003 250 206,920 1:830 
			 2004 250 207,020 1:830 
			 2005 250 201,100 1:800 
			 2006 250 195,850 1:780 
			  Sources:  1. Dentists—DMSD Manning returns.  2. Armed Forces Manning—DASA published figures. Numbers include those in training. 
		
	
	In addition, the DDS currently employs 38 full-time and 10 part-time Civilian Dental Practitioners (CDPs). Including the full-time CDPs in the 2006 total would bring the ratio for that year down to 1:680.

Armed Forces: Pay

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the salary is of each of the staff working in the household of the  (a) General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland,  (b) Commander in Chief Land,  (c) Adjutant General and  (d) Chief of the General Staff.

Derek Twigg: The current salary range for Ministry of Defence staff working in the households of the Chief of General Staff, the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland, the Commander in Chief Land and the Adjutant General are shown in the table.
	Salary details for those civilian staff that are employed by contractors are being withheld for reasons of commercial confidentiality:
	
		
			  Rank  Role  Salary range (£) 
			  CGS   
			 Colour Sergeant House Manager 27,000 to 34,000 
			 Corporal House Orderly 15,000 to 26,000 
			
			  GOC NI   
			 Sergeant House Sergeant 27,000 to 34,000 
			 Corporal Cook 15,000 to 26,000 
			 Civilian Gardener 13,000 to 17,000 
			 Civilian Cleaner 12,000 to 16,000 
			
			  CinC Land   
			 Corporal (Lance Sergeant) House Sergeant 27,000 to 34,000 
			 Private (Guardsman) House Orderly 15,000 to 26,000 
			 Civilian Contractor Chef — 
			 Civilian Contractor Gardener — 
			 Civilian Contractor Cleaner — 
			 Civilian Contractor Assistant Cleaner — 
			
			  Adjutant General   
			 Sergeant House Sergeant 27,000 to 34,000 
			 Civilian Contractor Gardener — 
			 Civilian Contractor Cleaner —

Departments: Sick Leave

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people took sick leave for stress in his Department in the last 12 months; and what percentage of the total staff number this represents.

Derek Twigg: The following table shows the number of Ministry of Defence civilian staff who have had a period of sickness absence caused by anxiety, depression and stress (Mental and Behavioural Disorders ICD10 category) in the calendar year of 2006 and the percentage of the total staff number this represents. The MOD does not have a specific sickness absence code for stress.
	
		
			  Calendar year  Number of staff  Percentage of total staff 
			 2006 4,090 4.9 
			  Notes: 1. This includes all permanent and casual non-industrial and industrial civilian personnel, but excludes trading fund, locally engaged civilian and Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel. 2. Number of staff has been rounded to the nearest 10 and the percentage of total staff has been rounded to the nearest decimal point.

International Security Assistance Force

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 16 April 2007,  Official Report, column 154W, on the International Security Assistance Force, how much the NATO common fund was in each year since 2001.

Des Browne: NATO Common Funding has been available to the International Security Assistance Force since 2003 only; prior to that all expenditure was borne nationally.
	The level of NATO common funding from 2003 is:
	
		
			   € million 
			 2003 19.8 
			 2004 73.9 
			 2005 65.4 
			 2006 70.1 
			 2007 (1)148.2 
			 (1) Approved budget.

Iraq: Peace Keeping Operations

Anne Moffat: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made on the provision of CAT scanners in  (a) Iraq and  (b) Afghanistan.

Derek Twigg: holding answer 14 May 2007
	The Defence Medical Services have had a computerised (Axial) tomography (CT) scanner operational in Iraq since March 2005. Earlier this year it was re-commissioned after being moved from Shaibah logistic base to the Contingent operating base at Basrah. It was working at initial operating capability (IOC) in early February this year, and by the end of that month was at full operational capability (FOC) with the addition of the telemedicine link capability back to the UK. The link enables experts in the UK to advise doctors locally about detailed diagnosis and treatment.
	In Afghanistan, a CT scanner was commissioned at Camp Bastion and working at IOC by April this year. It is due to achieve FOC when the telemedicine link capability is completed during May 2007.

Iraq: Police

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made in training the Iraqi police.

Des Browne: At present, approximately 135,000 Iraqi Police Service personnel have been trained and equipped by coalition forces. The emphasis is now on developing capability rather than further increasing numbers, particularly in the key areas of leadership, intelligence and forensics, which will help enable the Iraqi authorities to take responsibility for their own security.

Territorial Waters: Iran

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what changes there have been to the level of patrolling by the Royal Navy in the Persian Gulf since the seizure of Royal Navy personnel by the Iranians.

Des Browne: holding answer 14 May 2007
	Boarding operations were suspended following the seizure of Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel on 23 March 2007. As outlined in my written ministerial statement of 24 April 2007,  Official Report, column 21WS, an incremental return to full boarding operations in all areas commenced on 24 April 2007. This process is not yet complete.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Afghanistan: Reconstruction

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the likely effect on development of separating the security and reconstruction roles of the provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan; and if he will make a statement.

Hilary Benn: The UK-led provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan has a comprehensive approach to security and reconstruction, based on the joint UK plan for Helmand. This comprehensive approach is essential to create the conditions necessary for both security and for long-term development. The PRT includes military and civilian representatives from Estonia, Denmark, the United States and the UK. From the UK, DFID, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Post Conflict Reconstruction Unit (PCRU), work together with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to deliver the four strands of the joint UK plan for Helmand; security, governance, social and economic development, and counter-narcotics.
	The closely integrated civil/military structure currently used by the UK is widely regarded as a model of good practice to support the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) in establishing a secure environment where reconstruction and development can take place. There are no plans to separate the security and reconstruction roles of the UK PRT and therefore we have not assessed the potential impact of this.

Africa: Life Expectancy

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what action his Department is taking to increase life expectancy at birth in Africa.

Hilary Benn: DFID is working to increase life expectancy through a variety of activities including support for the provision of clean water and sanitation, large-scale immunisation and insecticide-treated bednets programmes and addressing related maternal mortality. Safe hygiene practice and improved access to clean water and sanitation are also vital for reducing child mortality. DFID produced the Water Action Plan in March 2004, and we will double our spending on water and sanitation to £95 million by 2007-08.
	In Nigeria we are providing £20 million to rebuild routine immunisation services and a further £80 million for malaria control. In Tanzania we continue to provide support for the social marketing of bednets as part of the national Insecticide-Treated Net Programme, and in Sierra Leone we are designing a new long-term Child Survival and Maternal Health Programme with the World Bank and national partners. In Malawi we are contributing £100 million over six years to the Government's essential health and human resource programme, and significant progress has been made on child survival through immunisation and malaria programmes. Similarly in Zambia we are major donors to the National Strategic Health Plan, which includes a focus on improving child health through expanded vaccination, curative care and improving access to services. In Kenya we are supporting a sector-wide approach for the long-term strengthening of the health system and improved service delivery. We have funded the development of a number of plans in human resources, procurement and financial management. We are also concentrating much support on the prevention of malaria, the major cause of mortality in children in Kenya. By the end of 2007 we will have spent more than £45 million on insecticide-treated bednets and distributed 11 million nets, saving approximately 167,000 lives. DFID is indirectly supporting South Africa's efforts to reverse under-five mortality rates through the £30 million, five-year HIV/AIDS Multi-Sectoral Support Programme (MSP). Our support to the Maternal Child and Women Health Unit in the Department of Health supports research in the area of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), the development of fertility options policy, and research on barriers to antiretroviral uptake among children and pregnant women.
	DFID continues to provide strong support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (GFATM), and also played a central role in the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) which issued its first bonds in November 2006. This will disburse $4 billion over the next 10 years and is estimated will save 10 million lives, including five million children before 2015. DFID also recently pledged long-term support to UNITAID, the International Drug Purchase Facility, starting with a £15 million contribution in 2007, to ensure poor countries benefit from lower prices for drugs to treat AIDS, TB and malaria.

Haiti: Overseas Aid

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his policy is on  (a) reducing the level of poverty in Haiti and  (b) cancelling Haiti's international debt; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: Recognising that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, DFID provides support through the wider international community's efforts to help lift Haiti out of poverty. Last year Haiti became a member of the Caribbean Development bank and in recognition of this DFID increased its contribution to the bank's low-interest poverty-focused funds to just over £23 million, £3 million of which was earmarked to projects in Haiti. DFID officials recently met with four senior officials from the Haitian Central bank and the Ministry of Finance to discuss the type of poverty-reducing support and projects they would like the bank to provide in the future.
	Most recently we have placed a DFID staff member in the Canadian Development Agency based in Port-au-Prince. The objective of this post is to improve the effectiveness of the international community's development assistance to Haiti, to coordinate the UK response to any humanitarian disaster and to facilitate the integration of disaster risk reduction activities into development and humanitarian programmes. The latter is key to reducing poverty in the long term as Haiti is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, such as floods, which hit the poor the hardest.
	We believe we will have greatest impact on the international development effort in Haiti by helping to improve the effectiveness of the large amounts of foreign aid that are already available. Much of this comes from regional and international institutions such as the World Bank, European Commission, United Nations and Inter-American Development bank, of which the UK contributes sizeable shares to each. The weakness of Haiti's institutions, including the administration, and the country's history of turbulence means it is vital that all donors coordinate their activities and align their assistance behind the Government's own objectives for reducing poverty.
	The UK supports debt cancellation for Haiti as soon as possible. Haiti began to receive interim debt relief under the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative in November last year. Its debt service payments have therefore already been considerably reduced. Haiti is now making progress towards completion point of the HIPC initiative when it will receive $140 million worth of debt cancellation (in 2005 net present value terms). At HIPC completion point, Haiti will also qualify for 100 per cent. debt cancellation at the World Bank and IMF under the multilateral debt relief initiative (MDRI) worth a further $243 million (in 2005 net present value terms), as well as additional debt cancellation at the Inter-American Development bank (IADB).

Iran: Deportation

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the number of Iranians deported from Iran to Afghanistan in the latest period for which figures are available; and what assessment he has made of the humanitarian implications of these deportations.

Hilary Benn: According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) figures, between 21 April and 9 May a total of 54,187 unregistered Afghan refugees have been deported through the crossing points of Islam Qala (Herat province)—19,311—and Zaranj (Nimroz province)—34,876. An additional estimated total of 487 families have arrived in the Farah province.
	The deportations are taking place as part of a concerted drive by the Iranian authorities to curb illegal migration from Afghanistan to Iran. As such it can be anticipated that they will continue for several more months. The current deportation exercise seems to be concentrating on Iran's south-eastern provinces, notably Sistan Baluchistan. To date UNHCR has not identified any significant incidence of registered refugees being deported from Iran.
	UNHCR reports that in general, the local authorities in Zaranj (Nimroz province) and Islam Qala (Herat province) are coping adequately with the influx. Sizeable deportations through these border crossings have been a regular occurrence for many years. The deportees are being accommodated in public buildings and tents. Water, sanitation facilities, and food are being provided.
	The humanitarian situation in the Farah province is of more concern. A recent joint mission of UNHCR, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) to Farah, established that families are being deported through an unofficial crossing point at Shaghali in the Farah province. They are currently being housed in temporary construction sites. It has been agreed that UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) will provide initial assistance to the deportees of one month's food rations, non-food items, and family kits. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is also undertaking a mission to the border areas to collect information from the deportees on human rights and protection issues and to compile a report.
	While DFID is not directly engaged in providing humanitarian assistance to refugees in the Herat, Nimroz and Farah provinces, we are in close contact with UN agencies, and continue to monitor the situation closely.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Bovine Tuberculosis

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will reconsider his Department's decision and use his discretion not to slaughter the bull Shambo, part of the herd of sacred cattle at the Hindu temple of Skanda Vale; what his policy is on the enforcement of animal welfare legislation towards cattle in Hindu herds maintained at Hindu temples; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Bradshaw: holding answer 14 May 2007
	 The herd my hon. Friend refers to is located in Wales. This is a devolved issue and is the responsibility of the Welsh Assembly Government.

Departments: Computers

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what  (a) instructions are issued to staff in his Department and  (b) technical procedures are in place to shut down computers at night.

Barry Gardiner: DEFRA places a high importance on energy efficiency measures and seeks to make savings wherever possible.
	 (a) Instructions to staff have been provided in a number of ways. As part of our 'big switch' energy efficiency campaign at the start of 2006, we combined online and poster messaging to inform and change staff behaviour to make sure all computers and other electrical equipment is switched off. Seasonal messages are broadcast on DEFRA's intranet to ensure staff turn off equipment over holiday periods. Information and instructions on energy saving measures appear on DEFRA's intranet and there are stickers on computer screens reminding staff to switch off their monitors.
	 (b) DEFRA is currently working on installing 'night watchman' technology with IBM, which will provide an automatic shut down operation for computers at a set time every evening. Energy saving measures are in place on printers which switch to standby mode after a 20-minute period of inactivity.

Departments: Official Visits

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the  (a) destination and  (b) purpose was of each overseas visit outside the European Union undertaken by staff in his Department in each of the last three months.

Barry Gardiner: From information held centrally, the core-Department's overseas visits outside the European Union in the last three months are listed as follows:
	
		
			  Country/purpose of visit  Number of trips 
			  Australia  
			 Clean Coal Conference and UK and Australia Energy Conference 1 
			 UNFCCC WORKSHOP 2 
			   
			  Canada  
			 Canadian Food Inspection Agency Meeting 1 
			 Carbon Capture and Sequestration Meetings 2 
			   
			  Cayman Islands  
			 Legislative advice to Cayman Islands Government on Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 1 
			   
			  China  
			 International Maritime Organisation Regional Workshop and Seminar on Ship Recycling 1 
			 Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) meeting 1 
			 UNFCCC WORKSHOP 2 
			   
			  Iceland  
			 Climate Change Seminar 1 
			   
			  India  
			 7th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 10 
			 India/UK workshop to launch phase II of the UK/ India project on impacts and adaptation 2 
			   
			  Indonesia  
			 ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) review 1 
			   
			  Japan  
			 EU Representation at UNFCCC Discussion 4 
			   
			  Kenya  
			 United Nations Environment Programme Governing Council—Nairobi 8 
			   
			  Mexico  
			 UK-Mexico Sustainable Development Dialogue meeting 2 
			   
			  Norway  
			 EU and Norway meeting on sandeel and North Norway haddock 2 
			 North Sea Basin Task Force and OSPAR meeting 1 
			 PECCOE (Permanent Committee on Control and Enforcement) meeting (sub committee of NEAFC (North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission)) 1 
			  Sweden  
			 Working group meeting for DG Environment Floods Action Plan stakeholder group 1 
			 WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Committee meetings 2 
			   
			  Switzerland  
			 Preparatory meeting for International Forum on Chemical Safety meeting 3 
			   
			  Thailand  
			 IPCC meeting for Working Group 3 of the IPCC 4th Assessment Report 2 
			   
			  United States  
			 UK representation at the Technical Working Group of the Global Bioenergy Partnership 1 
			 Attendance at the Waste Management Symposia in Tuscon, Arizona 1 
			 Climate Security Conference 2007 1 
			 Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-15) Meeting 2 
			 EU Representation at UNFCCC Discussion  
			 Health Effects Institute Annual Conference 1 
			 Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting of the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development 1 
			 International Preparatory Meeting on the UNCSD negotiations on climate change and energy 7 
			 International Whaling Commission meeting 2 
			 IPCC Working Group 1 
			 Lobbying the executive directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) on the UK position on the clean energy investment framework (CEIF) 1 
			 OECD Workshop 1 
			 Responding to/dialogue with academic critics of the Stern Review—Washington DC and Yale University 2 
			 To attend the Coalition of Rainforest Nations 1 
			 To take forward the UK-Mexico Sustainable Development Dialogue 1 
			 UK-Mexico Sustainable Development Dialogue meeting 1

Departments: Public Participation

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will publish the guidelines under which his Department sets a reduced time limit for initial responses to public consultations.

Barry Gardiner: DEFRA adheres to the Cabinet Office Code of Practice on Consultation. In line with that, except in exceptional circumstances, all written consultations last for a period of at least 12 weeks.
	The Cabinet Office Code sets out the following reasons why a consultation may last for a period of less than 12 weeks: timetables are set out in statute; they are governed by EU or other international processes; they are tied to the Budget or other annual financial cycles; they are about measures where there is a health and safety or security dimension; or some other urgent requirement for the introduction of new measures. In addition, where re-consultation takes place on the basis of amendments made in the light of earlier consultation, a shorter period may also be appropriate. In DEFRA, proposals for a consultation period of less than 12 weeks are dealt with on a case by case basis and require approval by Ministers.
	DEFRA Ministers take the code very seriously and only give permission for a reduced consultation period where there is a clear case for doing so.

Environmental Stewardship Scheme

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what account is taken of membership of former agricultural assistance schemes in the criteria for qualification for the environmental  (a) entry,  (b) organic and  (c) higher level stewardship schemes; how many applicants for environmental stewardship were members of former schemes; how much was allocated to (i) environmental stewardship and (ii) former such schemes in 2006-07; how many farmers were members of (1) environmental stewardship and (2) former such schemes in 2006-07; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for environmental stewardship to meet demand.

Barry Gardiner: Since October 2006, Environmental Stewardship is administered by Natural England on behalf of DEFRA. The terms and conditions are set out in the respective handbooks for the schemes. Membership of a former scheme is not part of the qualifying criteria and all applications are considered against the entry requirements.
	The Government are, however, anxious to encourage those who have been delivering significant environmental benefits under earlier schemes to continue to do so within the opportunities now available. Members of former schemes may also be more aware of the potential of the current schemes and hence more likely to apply. The applications database does not record information about previous scheme membership.
	The Rural Development Programme for the period 2006 to 2013 more than doubles the previous funding available for agri-environment schemes to £2.9 billion, and will allow for substantial additional uptake. During 2006-07 the following expenditure was committed to agri-environment schemes.
	
		
			  Scheme  Amount (£ million) 
			 Environmentally Sensitive Areas 63.6 
			 Countryside Stewardship 108.8 
			 Entry Level 95.3 
			 Organic Entry Level 15.6 
			 Higher Level 20

WORK AND PENSIONS

Departments: Sick Leave

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people took sick leave for stress in his Department in the last 12 months; and what percentage of the total staff number this represents.

Anne McGuire: The absence data are taken from the Departments sick absence management report as at 31 March 2007 and cover the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007. They include staff whose sickness started prior to this period, and those who were still sick at the end of the period.
	Figures for the number of staff in the Department include all staff that have been employed by us during the year 2006-07 including those who have subsequently left us as they all had the potential to contribute to sick absence figures.
	The Department uses the International Classification of Diseases version nine, set out by the World Health Organisation to record sick absences. The group for recording stress is 'Depression, Anxiety and Other Mental Health Issues' and does include mental health illnesses other than stress for example: psychoneurosis, schizophrenia, anxiety, nerves, and depression.
	The Department has recently moved to a new resource management system. This new system enables us to capture information relating to absences for "stress". The new system was fully operational for all the Department's staff from April 2007. In the future this will enable us to report key information against this absence reason in a more accurate manner.
	
		
			   Number/percentage 
			 Number of staff taking sick leave for depression, anxiety and other mental health issues 10,079 
			 Number of staff employed in the Department during 2006-07 139,880 
			 Percentage of all staff employed in the Department during 2006-07 7.21

Financial Assistance Scheme

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether people who have been refused initial payments from the Financial Assistance Scheme on the grounds of the de minimis rule will now have payments made to them retrospectively; and what his latest estimate is of the value of such payments.

James Purnell: 1,076 people affected by the Financial Assistance Scheme's de minimis rule will be eligible for increased payments following the proposed new rules on assistance payments. Increases will apply retrospectively and arrears will be paid back to when the member's entitlement began. The value of such payments is not currently available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Financial Assistance Scheme

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the process will be for making payments from the extended Financial Assistance Scheme to those who have lost pension savings; and if he will make a statement.

James Purnell: As a result of the extension to FAS announced in the 2007 Budget Speech, the FAS Operational Unit will, over the coming months, re-examine all members who have already been assessed to ensure they can be paid as soon as the necessary legislation is in force. Newly eligible members under the FAS extension will also be paid as soon as possible once legislation has come into force.

Incapacity Benefit: Medical Examinations

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of incapacity benefit claimants receive benefit after  (a) self assessment,  (b) GP referral and  (c) independent medical assessment.

Anne McGuire: A person's entitlement to incapacity benefit is informed by the personal capability assessment (PCA). The PCA provides an assessment of the limitations of functional capacity arising from physical and/or mental health conditions.
	The PCA is an evidence gathering process, in which evidence is gathered until it is possible to give robust advice that a person satisfies the benefit entitlement threshold.
	A person can be accepted as satisfying the threshold, without a medical examination, if they have an exempt condition, indicating a severe degree of disability; or self-report a degree of functional limitation that is consistent and compatible with their condition.
	If neither of these applies, the person is called for a face-to-face medical examination. Legislation provides that no person will be disallowed benefits without being offered a medical examination.
	For incapacity benefit claims beginning between January and March 2005, of those claimants who completed the PCA process, 24 per cent. were awarded benefit after completing a questionnaire, but without having to attend a medical examination, and 12 per cent. were awarded benefit on GP evidence alone, without being required to fill in a questionnaire or attend a medical examination.
	63 per cent of claimants attended a medical examination. However, not all of these were awarded benefit following the medical.

Incapacity Benefit: Medical Examinations

John Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many recipients of incapacity benefit were subject to a personal capability assessment in 2005-06.

Anne McGuire: The information is not available in the format requested.
	The number of personal capability assessment medical examinations carried out by Atos Origin Medical Services in the calendar year 2005 was 479,474. In 2006 the number was 497,260. It should be noted that people in receipt of incapacity benefit may have undergone more than one medical examination during this period.

Independent Living Funds

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Cotswold of 27 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1496W, on independent living funds, what action was taken as a result of the theft; whether those whose personal data were stolen were informed; how many people's personal data were on the tape; whether those whose personal data were stolen have since been victims of identity fraud; when the theft was discovered and how long after the theft occurred the discovery was made; what type of personal data were stolen; and if he will make a statement.

Anne McGuire: Following the incident last year, the trustees of the ILFs immediately instigated a full end-to-end review of IT security, as a precautionary measure. This review was carried out in consultation with experts in the field of IT and data security.
	All those whose personal data were contained on the stolen tape were informed of the incident in writing. The ILFs also set up a telephone help line to help customers who had additional queries.
	The stolen tape contained the personal data of approximately 30,000 people, including all current customers of the ILFs, as well as ILF staff and a number of former customers of the funds, whose details are retained in line with strict data retention policies.
	To date, there has been no evidence to suggest that anyone has been the victim of identity fraud as a consequence of this incident.
	The theft, which involved a forced entry to a data transport and storage contractor's van, while the tape was in transit to the ILFs' office, occurred on 21 September 2006 and was discovered, reported to the police and notified to the ILFs' management in less than two hours.
	The exact amount of personal data stolen varied from person to person but the range of data included names, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and bank account details.
	After receiving advice from a range of security professionals, the date of this incident was not made public. There was no information in the public domain to link the incident to the ILFs and to release the date of the incident then could have increased the risk of an attempt to access the data on the stolen tape.
	We consider that due to the length of time since the incident, the risk now of the data being compromised is low. Accordingly, the date of the incident has now been made public.

Industrial Health and Safety: Construction

Jonathan Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department takes to ensure that all employees working on building sites have a proper understanding of the risks and dangers involved and the steps that can be taken to prevent injury.

Anne McGuire: holding answer 3 May 2007
	 It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that any of their employees who work on construction sites have been provided with comprehensible and relevant information about the risks involved and the preventative and protective measures needed to prevent injury or ill health.
	There are also legal duties under the new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 on those in control of construction work to ensure that any worker carrying out construction work is competent or under the supervision of a competent person.
	The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publishes comprehensive guidance and information to help employers discharge their duties.

Industrial Health and Safety: Construction

Jonathan Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were  (a) killed and  (b) injured on building sites in each of the last 10 years.

Anne McGuire: holding answer 3 May 2007
	The latest available figures cover the period 1996-97 to 2005-06 and are set out in the following tables(1):
	(1) Figures for 2006-07 will have been published by autumn 2007.
	
		
			  Number of fatal injuries to workers and members of the public 1996-97 to 2005-06( 1,2) 
			   1996-97  1997-98  1998-99  1999-2000  2000-01 
			 Employees 66 58 47 61 73 
			 Self-employed 24 22 18 20 32 
			 Total fatal injuries to workers 90 80 65 81 105 
			 Members of the public 3 6 3 6 8 
			 Total fatal injuries 93 86 68 87 113 
		
	
	
		
			   2001-02  2002-03  2003-04  2004-05  2005-06( 1) 
			 Employees 60 56 52 55 42 
			 Self-employed 20 14 19 14 17 
			 Total fatal injuries to workers 80 70 71 69 59 
			 Members of the public 5 5 4 8 5 
			 Total fatal injuries 85 75 75 77 64 
			 (1) Provisional. (2) Reported to all enforcing authorities. 
		
	
	
		
			  Number of major injuries to workers and non-fatal injuries to members of the public 1996-97 to 2005-06( 1,2,3) 
			   1996-97  1997-98  1998-99  1999-2000  2000-01 
			 Employees 3,227 3,860 4,289 4,386 4,303 
			 Self-employed 827 466 367 363 405 
			 Total major injuries to workers 4,054 4,326 4,656 4,749 4,708 
			 Members of the public 405 339 378 403 316 
			 Total major injuries 4,459 4,665 5,034 5,152 5,024 
		
	
	
		
			   2001-02  2002-03  2003-04  2004-05  2005-06( 1) 
			 Employees 4,055 4,031 3,978 3,768 3,677 
			 Self-employed 540 690 750 728 742 
			 Total major injuries to workers 4,595 4,721 4,728 4,496 4,419 
			 Members of the public 381 263 180 200 188 
			 Total major injuries 4,976 4,984 4,908 4,696 4,607 
			 (1) Provisional. (2) Reported to all enforcing authorities. (3) The definition of a non-fatal injury to a member of the public is different from the definition of a major injury to a worker. 
		
	
	
		
			  Number of over-three-day injuries to workers 1996-97 to 2005-06( 1,2) 
			   1996-97  1997-98  1998-99  1999-2000  2000-01 
			 Employees 8,637 9,756 9,195 10,159 9,367 
			 Self-employed 1,029 509 381 345 429 
			 Total over-three-day injuries to workers 9,666 10,265 9,576 10,504 9,796 
		
	
	
		
			   2001-02  2002-03  2003-04  2004-05  2005-06( 1) 
			 Employees 9,100 8,949 8,256 7,540 7,492 
			 Self-employed 595 629 739 748 799 
			 Total over-three-day injuries to workers 9,695 9,578 8,995 8,288 8,291 
			 (1) Provisional. (2) Reported to all enforcing authorities.

Industrial Health and Safety: Construction

Jonathan Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department takes to ensure that health and safety legislation is properly transmitted to all parts of the building workforce.

Anne McGuire: holding answer 3 May 2007
	It is responsibility of employers to ensure that they are fully aware of the requirements of health and safety legislation and that they provide every worker carrying out construction work under their control with any information and training which they need for the work to be carried out safely and without risk to health.
	There are also duties under the new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 on those in charge of notifiable construction projects to have arrangements in place to engage with construction workers to co-operate effectively in promoting and developing measures to ensure the health, safety and welfare of construction workers on that site.
	The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publishes comprehensive guidance information targeted at everyone involved in the construction industry.

New Deal 50 Plus

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many participants there have been on the New Deal 50 plus in each month since it was created; and how many of these were completing the course for the  (a) first,  (b) second,  (c) third and  (d) fourth or more time.

Jim Murphy: New Deal 50 plus is a voluntary programme and participants receive advice and support to help them return to employment.
	The available information on the number of participants on New Deal 50 plus, and the number of times they have participated, is in the following table.
	
		
			  New Deal 50 plus 
			Of which, participating for the: 
			  Month  Number of participants  First time  Second time  Third time  Fourth time or more 
			  2004  
			 January 4,040 3,480 530 30 0 
			 February 7,140 6,170 910 50 0 
			 March 10,580 9,210 1,290 70 10 
			 April 13,090 11,370 1,620 90 10 
			 May 15,450 13,390 1,930 120 10 
			 June 17,730 15,370 2,200 140 10 
			 July 20,610 17,880 2,540 180 10 
			 August 23,120 19,990 2,930 190 10 
			 September 25,360 21,990 3,150 210 10 
			 October 28,480 24,710 3,510 250 10 
			 November 30,460 26,440 3,740 280 10 
			 December 32,300 28,040 3,970 290 10 
			  2005  
			 January 34,110 29,640 4,150 310 10 
			 February 36,110 31,450 4,330 320 10 
			 March 37,850 33,000 4,490 340 10 
			 April 39,770 34,670 4,710 370 20 
			 May 41,250 35,950 4,910 370 20 
			 June 42,520 37,070 5,030 400 20 
			 July 44,140 38,480 5,220 420 20 
			 August 45,300 39,520 5,330 430 20 
			 September 46,670 40,720 5,470 450 20 
			 October 47,770 41,710 5,570 470 20 
			 November 49,080 42,870 5,700 490 30 
			 December 50,150 43,840 5,790 500 30 
			  2006  
			 January 51,080 44,660 5,900 500 30 
			 February 51,920 45,420 5,950 520 30 
			 March 52,910 46,350 6,020 510 30 
			 April 53,430 46,820 6,050 520 40 
			 May 54,240 47,520 6,150 540 40 
			 June 55,000 48,200 6,220 550 40 
			 July 55,450 48,590 6,260 550 40 
			 August 55,790 48,920 6,270 560 40 
			  Notes: 1. Information on participants on the programme is only available from January 2004. 2. Latest data are to August 2006. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.  Source:  Information Directorate, Department for Work and Pensions

New Deal 50 Plus

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many participants on the New Deal 50 plus programme left the scheme for sustainable employment in each month since the programme was created.

Jim Murphy: A measure of employment sustainability is not available for people who have found work through the New Deal 50 plus programme.

New Deal Schemes: Lone Parents

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many lone parents on the new deal  (a) are in work-based training and  (b) he expects to be placed in (i) full-time and (ii) part-time work.

Jim Murphy: Lone parents on the new deal for lone parents (NDLP) programme can access work-based training through new deal for young people or new deal 25 plus contracts. They can also be referred to training through other contracted and non-contracted provision. Information on the number of lone parents on work-based training is not available.
	Since the programme started in October 1998, new deal for lone parents has been successful in helping more than 482,000 lone parents into work. Information is not available on whether these lone parents have entered full or part-time work and projections are not made on whether lone parents entering work through the programme will enter full or part-time work.

Occupational Pensions

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the written statement of 28 March 2007,  Official Report, columns 113-4WS, on occupational pensions, what the evidential basis is for his estimate that providing benefits of 80 per cent. of core pension rights to members of affected pension schemes will cost £8 billion in cash terms and £1.9 billion in net present value terms.

James Purnell: In order to determine the likely cost of the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), data were collected on the numbers and characteristics of 380 affected pension schemes and specific data were collected on some 1,300 members of a smaller number of these schemes expected to be representative of the overall eligible membership. These sample data have then been fed into an actuarial model developed by the Government Actuary's Department to generate detailed time profiles of costs.
	The actuarial model calculates the amount of pension that would be paid in each year to each individual in the sample, reflecting the design of the FAS. The key pieces of information used to calculate these costs are: age, retirement age, accrued pension, percentage of pension lost and the likely longevity of eligible members and any survivors. The results, in terms of likely cash flow in each year, are scaled up to the level of the total assumed numbers of affected scheme members.
	The main assumptions used in the calculations, based on the best available evidence are as follows:
	125,000 eligible pensioner and non-pensioner members;
	an average funding level of schemes in respect of non-pensioner members of 30 per cent. to 35 per cent.;
	an average accrued pension for non-pensioner members of £3,300 per year; and
	longevity estimates from standard tables from the UK actuarial profession's Continuous Mortality Investigation, based on the longevity experienced by pensioners whose pensions are secured with insurance companies.

TRANSPORT

Railways for All Accessibility Strategy

Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the Railways for All Accessibility Strategy.

Tom Harris: The strategy was launched in March 2006. It provides £370 million of funding to improve accessibility at stations up to 2015 and around £6 million a year from a small schemes fund for train operators and others to bid for on a match fund basis.

Rail Services

Christopher Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the future of rural and branch railway lines.

Tom Harris: The Government recognise the importance of local railway lines to the communities they serve and seek to support their development, primarily through the implementation of the Community Rail Development Strategy. The Department has recently published a review of progress we have made in implementing this strategy.

Rail Services

Jim Devine: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the growth of railway usage has been in the UK compared to other EU countries in the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Harris: Over the last five years, passenger kilometres have increased by 13 per cent. in Great Britain. This compares with a decline of 1 per cent. in Germany and Italy, and an increase of 7 per cent. in France. Together these four countries accounted for close to 70 per cent. of the total rail volume across the 25 pre-2007 EU states.

Regional Air Services

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he plans to apply public service obligations to UK regional air services following the EU-US agreement on transatlantic air travel.

Gillian Merron: The Government's guidance on the protection of regional air access to London published in December 2005 sets out how we will interpret the criteria for imposing public service obligations set out in European Regulations. It is for Devolved Administrations or regional bodies to apply for and make the economic case for a PSO.

M4

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the capacity of junction 16 on the M4 per day; and what change he expects there to be to future capacity.

Stephen Ladyman: A specific study would be required to determine the absolute capacity of junction 16. However, existing peak hour congestion problems indicate that it is running at or above capacity at certain times.
	Junction 16 is being improved to increase capacity to cater for the additional traffic expected to be generated by the Wichelstowe development.

Landing Slots: Airports

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the economic and environmental impact of the system of allocating landing slots at airports and alternatives to it.

Gillian Merron: The Government commissioned a study in 2006 on alternative ways of allocating landing slots from new capacity at airports. The report of the study is available on the Department's website.

East Coast Main Line

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the procedures for awarding franchises on the east coast main line. [R]

Tom Harris: Bids are evaluated in accordance with the European Foundation for Quality Management principles and consider the evidence contained in the bid and that available more widely to the Department.
	The franchise will be awarded to the bidder that provides best operational and financial deliverability and value for money to the taxpayer.

Rail Services: North-West

Michael Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps his Department is taking to increase spending on railways in the north-west; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Harris: Rail services in the north-west have improved substantially as a result of investment in the west coast main line upgrade and the new high-speed trains which now operate on the route. Future rail investment in this and other regions will be the subject of the high-level output specification for rail which the Government will publish in July.

British Transport Police

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has for the disposition of the British Transport Police.

Tom Harris: Following the Department's review of the British Transport Police (BTP) last year, the Secretary of State decided that BTP should remain as a national, specialist police force for the railways.

Departments: Internet

Theresa May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport for which Government websites he is responsible; how many visitors each received in the latest period for which figures are available; and what the cost  (a) was of establishing and  (b) has been of maintaining each site.

Gillian Merron: The Department for Transport maintains 62 public-facing websites, including those run by the Executive agencies. 43 of these sites have been identified for rationalisation or closure as part of the website rationalisation programme under the Transformational Government Agenda.
	Tables have been placed in the Libraries of the House showing unique visitor numbers, costs of establishing each site and maintenance costs for the Department for Transport websites.
	Unique visitor data are not provided for all sites as the statistical software used on those sites does not produce this level of detail, only providing page requests rather than visitor data.
	Where setup costs are not available this is because the site was established several years ago and the information is no longer available without incurring disproportionate costs.
	Where annual maintenance costs are not available this is due to a number of reasons; either the site has only recently been available and maintenance costs are only applicable for the current financial year; the costs are part of a much larger contract and cannot be itemised; or the costs cannot be calculated without incurring disproportionate costs.

Departments: Olympic Games

Mark Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his Department's first estimate was of the total contribution to be made from the departmental budget towards the costs of hosting the Olympic games; and what his Department's current estimate is of that cost.

Gillian Merron: The key transport projects integral to the Olympic bid and supported by the Department stand on their own merits and had been approved prior to the bid's submission. Following the announcement of a full budget for the delivery of the Olympics in March, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer is considering how that budget should be delivered in the context of the 2007 comprehensive spending review.

Departments: Sick Leave

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many people took sick leave for stress in his Department in the last 12 months; and what percentage of the total staff number this represents.

Gillian Merron: The number of individuals who took sick leave for stress in the Department for Transport and its agencies during the calendar year 2006 is 1,061. This represents 5.3 per cent. of the total staff.
	Some agencies have also included, in the figures, absences due to anxiety, nervous debility, neurosis and emotional upset.

Driving Tests: Accidents

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many accidents occurred involving drivers taking the Driving Standards Authority driving test when they were  (a) reversing around a corner,  (b) performing a three-point turn,  (c) parallel parking and  (d) performing an emergency stop in the last period for which figures are available.

Stephen Ladyman: During the financial year 2006-07, the Driving Standards Agency recorded:
	 (a) 14 accidents on the reversing around a corner exercise;
	 (b) Seven accidents on the three-point turn exercise;
	 (c) Four parallel parking accidents and
	 (d) 17 emergency stop accidents.

Driving Tests: Fraud

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many instances of people found to be impersonating candidates in driving tests there were in each of the last five years.

Stephen Ladyman: Since records began in 2004, there have been 70 convictions for offences arising from driving test impersonations and a further 79 individuals received cautions. These figures are broken down as follows:
	
		
			   Convictions secured  Cautions accepted  Ongoing investigations( 1)  Total investigations 
			 2004 47 37 19 103 
			 2005 20 34 64 118 
			 2006 3 6 244 253 
			 2007 0 2 175 177 
			 Total 70 79 502 651 
			 (1) Number of investigations from each year still ongoing as at 27 April 2007. 
		
	
	Because of the time required to bring cases to court a further 96 court cases are currently pending and 502 investigations are ongoing. The typical time taken to pursue a case from the initial allegation to a conviction and sentence is about two years.
	Since 2004, some 293 people have been arrested for 729 offences arising from driving test impersonations.

Driving Tests: Standards

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps would need to be taken to amend the requirements of the Driving Standards Authority driving test.

Stephen Ladyman: As announced in February in our review of the Government's "Road Safety Strategy", I have asked the Driving Standards Agency to undertake a fundamental review of the way people learn to drive as part of our efforts to reduce road traffic casualties. This will include ensuring that the driving test provides an effective and efficient coverage of the syllabus and demonstrates that a candidate has the required level of competence.
	In Great Britain the requirements for the driving test, both the theory and practical elements, are set out in the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1999 (as amended). Any proposed changes will be subject to public consultation before decisions are reached and amending regulations laid in Parliament.

Galileo Project

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much British funding has been made available for the Galileo global positioning system.

Stephen Ladyman: The European Union (EU) and member states of the European Space Agency (ESA) jointly fund the design and development programme for Galileo. To date the UK's subscription to the ESA element of the programme has been €142 million.
	The EU's contribution to the design and development programme is made from the EC budget and is estimated by the Commission to be €790 million. The UK's contribution to the EC budget is around 17 per cent. of the total, before the UK receives any abatement.

Invalid Vehicles

Mark Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  what consultation he has carried out with disability groups on the new classification of mobility scooters as vehicles rather than invalid carriages and the impact of such classification on their use on the highways and footpaths;
	(2)  what he expects the impact of the new EU classification of mobility scooters as motorised vehicles to be on the capacity to use those scooters on footways and highways.

Gillian Merron: holding answer 8 May 2007
	The Department for Transport considers that the change in the classification of mobility vehicles is purely a customs and excise issue, which will not affect road traffic legislation.
	Consultation with disability groups on the new classification has not been carried out as it is not considered that it will impact on the ability of scooter users to travel on highways or footpaths.

Foreign-registered Lorries

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what measures his Department is taking to ensure foreign lorries on roads in the UK comply with UK and EU safety regulations.

Stephen Ladyman: The Department's Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) has a specific responsibility to help ensure that all commercial vehicles and drivers comply with the law, irrespective of whether their operating base is in the UK, or elsewhere.
	However, in recognition of the concern that a greater proportion of vehicles and drivers on international journeys break the rules, last year we provided for VOSA to increase the level of roadside enforcement resources they have available in the south-east. This enabled VOSA to double the number of enforcement checks on potentially non-compliant vehicles during the last financial year, and will enable them to increase the number of checks by a further 20 per cent. in the current financial year. VOSA is extending the work of the South East International Transport Pilot nationally.
	In addition to providing for a greater level of enforcement activity in the south-east, we also intend to introduce regulations at the earliest opportunity that will enable both the police and VOSA to issue fixed penalties and take a deposit from offenders on-the-spot in any case where they do not have a satisfactory address in the UK.
	Enforcement officers will, in future, also be able to immobilise a vehicle in any case where the offender is likely to refuse to pay a deposit, or to drive away in contravention of any prohibition which has been issued, either in respect of the driver, or in any case where the vehicle has been deemed unfit to continue with its journey.

M1: Road Traffic

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he intends to take to reduce congestion on the northbound carriageways of the M1 motorway between junctions 25 and 26.

Stephen Ladyman: The M1 junction 21-30 improvement scheme, which includes the northbound carriageways between junctions 25 and 26, will reduce congestion. The scheme will also improve safety and journey time reliability. Subject to satisfactory completion of the necessary statutory processes, construction is anticipated to begin between junctions 25 and 28 at the end of 2007 with completion expected in 2010.

Mobility

Phyllis Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress his Department has made in introducing regulations to allow the issuing of temporary badges for drivers with a temporary mobility impairment.

Gillian Merron: The Department is currently conducting a full strategic review of the Blue Badge Scheme, which will consider the issue of temporary badges. We aim to report our findings in September 2007.

Ports: Construction

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans the Government have to review the planning process for sea-port expansion.

Stephen Ladyman: The Government will shortly be publishing their proposals for reform of the planning system, including that for major infrastructure developments such as the largest ports.
	The Marine Bill White Paper issued in March by the Secretary of State, DEFRA, outlined our proposals for a new marine planning system and the setting up of a new body, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). The MMO will, among other roles, administer marine licensing including proposals for harbour development below the category of major port projects.

Road Traffic Control

Jacqui Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  what  (a) economic and  (b) environmental impact his Department expects the ending of the tidal flow at the Blackwall Tunnel to have on (i) the South East, (ii) East Anglia, (iii) London and (iv) England;
	(2)  when and by whom his Department was invited to comment on the proposal to end the tidal flow at the Blackwall Tunnel.

Gillian Merron: The operation of the Blackwall Tunnel is the responsibility of Transport for London. They consulted the Highways Agency in January on the decision to terminate the tidal flow system. The Highways Agency was satisfied that the traffic impact on the Strategic Road Network would be negligible.
	Since the decision to end the tidal flow system is an operational matter for Transport for London, no assessment of the economic and environmental impact has been made by the Department for Transport or the Highways Agency.

Roads: Tolls

Jacqui Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  how much grant from the Transport Innovation Fund has been given to Transport for London to fund the study of road tolls at Greenwich;
	(2)  what  (a) advice and  (b) funding his Department has given to Transport for London to assess the impact on surrounding areas of a proposed Greenwich road toll, including the impact of diverted traffic and pollution.

Gillian Merron: The Department has not provided specific policy or analytical support to Transport for London (TfL) in relation to Greenwich, however it has published guidance that is available to any local traffic authority that might wish to consider road pricing in their area on how to appraise the impacts of potential schemes.
	The Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) is available from 2008-09 to support packages that address local congestion problems by combining investment in public transport with demand management, including road pricing. Pump priming money has been awarded to 10 areas to support the development of business cases. TfL has not received pump priming support and was not eligible to apply but may bid for substantive TIF along with other local authorities.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

British Grand Prix: Tourism

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what initiatives her Department is taking to promote tourism in the UK to overseas visitors coming to the UK for the Grand Prix.

Shaun Woodward: DCMS provides funding for VisitBritain to market Britain overseas and promote England domestically. In partnership with other public sector agencies, VisitBritain seeks to ensure that travellers to Britain enjoy an experience that encourages not only repeat visits but also further exploration of the country. VisitBritain's website contains a dedicated sport area which markets attractions that can be enjoyed by the sports tourist, including material specifically aimed at international tourists visiting the Grand Prix.
	My right hon. Friend the Minister for Sport recently met the Chief Executive of VisitBritain to discuss how effective marketing can maximise the tourism benefits of major sports events held in this country, in the context of the forthcoming Tourism Strategy for the 2012 Olympic games and Paralympic games.

Gambling: Fees and Charges

Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what level of  (a) local authority licensing fees and  (b) Gambling Commission fees have been set by her Department, under the Gambling Act.

Richard Caborn: Licensing authorities are responsible for setting the fees for each type of gambling premises on a cost recovery basis. These must not exceed the fee maximum published in The Gambling Act (Premises Licence Fees) (England and Wales) regulations 2005 No. 479.
	The Gambling Commission fees are as follows:
	
		
			  Gambling Commission: Payable from 1 January 2007 
			   Licence Application Fees 
			   Non-Remote  Remote 
			  Operating Licence Type  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H 
			 Casino: 2005 Act 28,988 38,047 43,482 — — 28,988 34,423 38,047 
			 Casino: 1968 Act 6,588 9,882 19,765 — — 28,988 34,423 38,047 
			 Bingo 988 1,647 3,294 17,295 20,753 1,647 3,294 16,471 
			 General betting—limited 180 360 990 — — — — — 
			 General betting—standard 988 988 3,459 17,295 40,518 988 3,294 16,471 
			 Pool betting 659 1,647 4,941 — — 659 1,647 4,941 
			 Betting intermediary 200 200 200 — — 9,882 13,176 16,471 
			 Gaming machine general: AGC 988 988 1,647 4,941 16,471 — — — 
			 Gaming machine general: FEC 988 988 1,647 4,941 16,471 — — — 
			 Gaming machine technical: manufacturer 988 1,647 16,471 — — 988 1,647 16,471 
			 Gaming machine technical: supplier 988 1,647 4,941 — — 988 1,647 4,941 
			 Gaming machine technical: software 988 4,941 16,471 — — 988 4,941 16,471 
			 Gambling software 988 4,941 16,471 — — 9,882 13,176 16,471 
			 Lottery managers 988 1,647 2,306 — — 988 1,647 2,306 
			 Society lotteries 165 247 329 — — 165 247 329 
		
	
	
		
			   Proposed Annual Licence Fees 
			   Non-Remote  Remote 
			  Operating Licence Type  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H 
			 Casino: 2005 Act 48,825 96,925 193,851 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Casino: 1968 Act 16,356 20,716 295,539 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Bingo 1,769 7,077 16,860 35,790 78,098 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 General betting—limited 200 467 1,267 — — — — — 
			 General betting—standard 1,769 7,077 16,860 36,862 212,372 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Pool betting 2,121 4,083 4,083 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Betting intermediary 267 4,083 4,083 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Gaming machine general: AGC 1,616 6,464 12,928 26,488 36,862 — — — 
			 Gaming machine general: FEC 1,171 4,683 9,365 21,288 35,790 — — — 
			 Gaming machine technical: manufacturer 2,961 6,325 14,175 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Gaming machine technical: supplier 2,401 3,243 4,083 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Gaming machine technical: software 1,535 3,861 6,188 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Gambling software 1,535 3,861 6,188 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Lottery managers 1,981 2,261 2,541 — — 12,733 34,176 66,341 
			 Society lotteries 348 692 1,392 — — 2,372 4,370 6,361 
		
	
	
		
			   Licence fee  Annual fee 
			 General betting restricted remote—phone betting only and GGY up to £0.25 million 660 1,500 
			 Ancillary remote fee (per Regs) 100 25 
		
	
	
		
			   Charge 
			  Changes in control  
			 Change in control 75 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			 Change resulting from mergers/divisions 75 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			   
			  Variations  
			 Add licensed activity 25 per cent. of standard licence 
			 Amend licensed activity 25 per cent. of standard licence 
			 Remove licensed activity £25 admin fee 
			 Change details £25 admin fee 
			 Add a condition to the licence 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			 Amend a condition to the licence 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			 Remove a condition to the licence 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			   
			  Copy of licence £25 admin fee 
			   
			  Copies of the register of operating licences (NB available on the internet for no charge) £25 admin fee 
		
	
	
		
			   Fees 
			  Personal Licences  Licence  Maintenance 
			 Management Licence 330 330 
			 Functional Licence 165 165 
		
	
	
		
			   Charge 
			  Variations  
			 Add licensed activity 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			 Amend licensed activity 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			 Remove licensed activity £25 admin fee 
			 Change details £25 admin fee 
			 Add a condition to the licence 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			 Amend a condition to the licence 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			 Remove a condition to the licence 25 per cent. of standard licence fee 
			   
			  Copy of licenc e £25 admin fee 
			   
			  Copies of the register of personal licences (NB available on the internet for no charge) £25 admin fee

Gambling: Licensing

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will take steps to provide a two-month compliance extension to operators seeking a premises licence under the terms of the Gambling Act 2006; and if she will make a statement.

Richard Caborn: It remains the Government's intention to bring the Gambling Act 2005 fully into force on 1 September 2007.

Gambling: Licensing

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent research she has  (a) initiated and  (b) evaluated on the implications for (i) local authorities and (ii) operators of the non-implementation of the mandatory and default conditions under the Gambling Act 2006.

Richard Caborn: No research of this nature has been initiated or evaluated by the Secretary of State.

Gambling: Licensing

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her timetable is for the introduction of the  (a) mandatory and  (b) default conditions under the Gambling Act 2006; and if she will make a statement.

Richard Caborn: The Gambling Act 2005 (Mandatory and Default conditions) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 were debated in the House of Commons on 26 March and the House of Lords on 3 May 2007. The regulations have now been made and come into force on 21 May 2007.

National Heritage Memorial Fund

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much national lottery-funded money has yet to be allocated by the National Heritage Memorial Fund; what that figure was in August 2006; how much the fund  (a) received from the lottery in 2006 and  (b) expects to receive in 2007; and what the investment returns for the fund from lottery funding were in (i) August 2006 and (ii) the latest period for which figures are available.

Richard Caborn: The following table shows the National Heritage Memorial Fund's (NHMF's) income from the National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF) for the financial years 2005-06 and 2006-07; for August 2006 alone, and estimated figures, based on the Department's latest income projections, for 2007-08.
	
		
			  National Heritage Memorial Fund 
			   Operator related income to nearest £1,000  Investment income to nearest £1,000  Total income to nearest £1,000 
			 Entire financial year 2005-06 230,631,000 39,704,000 270,334,000 
			 August 2006 19,401,000 2,319,000 21,720,000 
			 Entire financial year 2006-07 200,937,000 30,008,000 230,938,000 
			 Financial year 2007-08 (estimated) 205,833,000 15,667,000 221,500,000 
		
	
	The NHMF provides my Department with data on the level of unpaid lottery commitments at the final day of each quarter of the financial year. The closest figure to August 2006 that we have available is September 2006.
	On 30 September 2006 the NHMF's balance in the NLDF was £722,554,821. Its forward commitments including both contractually binding and 'in principle' commitments totalled £1,107,819,235. It was therefore over-committed on its NLDF balance by £385,264,414.
	On 31 March 2007 the NHMF's balance was £660,163,116. Its forward commitments, including both contractually binding and 'in principle' commitments totalled £1,084,000,000. It was therefore over-committed by £424,000,000.

Olympic Games: Greater London

David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 
	(1)  how many landscaping contracts have been awarded as part of the preparation for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games programme; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  how much has been spent to date on landscaping projects in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games programme.

Richard Caborn: The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has to date appointed one contract for the EDAW Consortium to lead landscape design for the Olympic Park. In the coming months, further contracts will start to be procured relating to the following areas:
	hard and soft landscaping;
	wetlands;
	soil drainage and irrigation;
	towpaths and footpaths; and
	infrastructure such as lighting, fencing and street furniture.
	As is consistent with other non-departmental public bodies, the ODA will be publishing its expenditure figures in its annual report, which will be publicly available before the summer recess.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Administered Incentive Pricing

Julian Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will place in the Library the regulatory impact assessment for implementation of administered incentive pricing; and if he will make a statement.

Margaret Hodge: The matter raised is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers.
	Accordingly, I have asked the Chief Executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the Chief Executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Bankruptcy: Gloucestershire

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people in Gloucestershire were declared bankrupt in each year since 1997.

Jim Fitzpatrick: Regional insolvency statistics are only available on the basis of the locations of Official Receivers offices, each of which covers a group of county courts where the cases are heard and the courts having jurisdiction over these. It is not possible to provide bankruptcy statistics by constituency, county or Government Office Region. The following table provides the bankruptcy order statistics considered to be closest to those of interest in courts with insolvency jurisdiction which themselves fall within Gloucestershire but they should not be treated as reliable estimates for the administrative geography requested.
	
		
			   Cheltenham county court  Gloucester county court  Total 
			 1997 57 129 186 
			 1998 65 124 189 
			 1999 65 111 176 
			 2000 57 124 181 
			 2001 65 125 190 
			 2002 81 186 267 
			 2003 93 175 268 
			 2004 120 221 341 
			 2005 135 318 453 
			 2006 259 395 654

Construction: Payments

Mark Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he expects to publish his Department's plans to improve payment practices under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Part II).

Margaret Hodge: The DTI is developing detailed proposals to improve the adjudication and payment provisions in Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. My officials are due to meet representatives of the construction industry to discuss the proposals shortly. I intend to publish a consultation paper to follow up our previous joint consultation with the Welsh Assembly Government on "Improving payment practices in the construction industry".

Departments: Disciplinary Proceedings

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many grievance procedures have been initiated in his Department in the last 12 months.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 18 formal grievance procedures were initiated in the Department during 2006.

Departments: Intimidation

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many complaints of bullying have been investigated in his Department in the last 12 months; and how many complaints have been upheld.

Jim Fitzpatrick: There have been less than five complaints of bullying investigated in the last 12 months in the Department. No further information can be provided on the grounds of confidentiality.
	The Department's policy and procedures for investigating complaints is set out in the staff handbook, "The Guide", available to all staff.

Departments: Sexual Harassment

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many complaints of sexual harassment have been investigated in his Department in the last 12 months; and how many complaints have been upheld.

Jim Fitzpatrick: There have been less than five sexual harassment complaints investigated in the last 12 months in the Department. No further information can be provided on the grounds of confidentiality.
	The Department's policy and procedures for investigating complaints is set out in the staff handbook, "The Guide", available to all staff.

Farmers: Bankruptcy

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the answer of 1 May 2007,  Official Report, column 1564W, on farmers: bankruptcy, for what reasons bankruptcy figures for 2006 are not available by industry sector.

Jim Fitzpatrick: Bankruptcy statistics broken down by industry sector are routinely published one quarter in arrears of the headline figures. At the time when the answer referred to above was provided, full year 2006 figures would not, therefore, have been available.
	However, further to this, development work is currently being undertaken to the section of the bankruptcy database that records industry classification to update it to the current standard for official statistics: SIC2003 (Standard Industrial Classification 2003). Statistics based on SIC2003 are expected to be available for new bankruptcy orders from July 2007. Complete, reliable statistics by industry for new orders from October 2006 to June 2007 are not available.
	For information, the numbers of bankruptcy orders and company liquidations recorded under "Agriculture" and made in the "first 9 months of calendar year 2006" in England and Wales were 129 (bankruptcy orders) and 28 (company liquidations)—the basis of these is consistent with the annual figures for 2001-05 provided in the answer to the hon. Member on 1 May 2007,  O fficial  R eport, column 1564W.

Post Offices

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new post offices opened in  (a) 2004,  (b) 2005 and  (c) 2006.

Jim Fitzpatrick: The question the hon. Member has asked relates to operational matters for which Post Office Ltd. is directly responsible. Post Office Ltd. has provided the following figures relating to the number of post offices opened.
	
		
			  Number of post office branches opening 
			   Number 
			 2004 190 
			 2005 202 
			 2006 239

Post Offices: Essex

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new post offices have opened in Essex since 1997.

Jim Fitzpatrick: The question the hon. Member has asked relates to operational matters for which Post Office Ltd is directly responsible. I understand that the information is not held at county level and the information is available only from 2002. Post Office Ltd has provided the following figures relating to the number of post offices opened for the East of England Region which includes Essex.
	
		
			  Number of post office branches opening 
			  From:  Number 
			 2002 185

Post Offices: Rural Areas

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps his Department is taking to halt the decline in the number of rural post offices.

Jim Fitzpatrick: The Government's policy of preventing avoidable closures of post offices in rural areas, introduced in November 2000, has helped safeguard the number of rural post offices.
	Proposals set out in the Government's consultation on the Post Office Network which ran until 8 March 2007, included criteria to safeguard coverage in rural and remote rural areas. The Government's response to consultation which will set out final decisions is expected shortly.

Postal Services: Gloucester

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many postcards he has received as part of the Not via Swindon campaign to keep the Gloucester sorting office open.

Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department has received 250 postcards as part of this campaign.

Sheep Meat: New Zealand

Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what tonnage of sheep meat was imported to the UK from New Zealand in each year between 2004 and 2006; and how much has been imported in 2007.

Ian McCartney: HM Revenue and Customs' Overseas Trade Statistics for the quantity of fresh, chilled and frozen sheep meat imports from New Zealand (Standard International Trade Classification 01211 and 01212) are shown in the following table:
	
		
			   Tonnes 
			 2004 82,050 
			 2005 79,208 
			 2006 83,248 
			 2007 (January and February) 15,701 
		
	
	These figures exclude imports of offal, skins and fats. Comparable figures for imports from New Zealand of fresh, chilled and frozen edible offal of sheep, goats, horses, asses, mules or hinnies (SITC 01255 and 01256) were 10,880, 12,399, 10,466 and 1,977 tonnes respectively; all of this is likely to be sheep offal.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Adoption

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the impact of progress towards adoption targets for local authorities on children and families.

Parmjit Dhanda: The Government have set a number of targets on adoption.
	The following target was included in the Department of Health publication 'Improvement, Expansion and Reform: The Next Three Years (Priorities and Planning Framework 2003-06)':
	"Maintain current levels of adoption placement stability (as measured by the proportion of placements for adoption ending with the making of an adoption order) so that quality is not compromised whilst increasing the use of adoption as follows:
	By 2004-05 increase by 40 per cent. the number of looked after children who are adopted, and aim to exceed this by achieving, if possible, a 50 per cent. increase by 2006, up from 2,700 in 1999-2000. All councils will bring their practice up to the current level of the best performers.
	By 2004-05 increase to 95 per cent. the proportion of looked after children placed for adoption within 12 months of the decision that adoption is in the child's best interests, up from 81 per cent. in 2000-01, and maintain this level (95 per cent.) up to 2006, by locally applying the timescales in the national adoption standards, taking account of the individual child's needs."
	The period during which this target operated came to an end in March 2006.
	The target helped significantly to raise the number of adoptions of looked after children, where adoption was in the child's best interests. Between 2000-01 and 2004-05 the proportion of looked after children placed for adoption within 12 months of the decision that adoption was in the child's best interests remained stable at around 80 per cent.. We will be reviewing the factors that influenced performance against this target in light of the full implementation and bedding down of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.
	In addition, in 2004, the following Department for Education and Skills Public Service Agreement target was introduced:
	"To narrow the gap in educational achievement between looked after children and their peers, and improve their educational support and the stability of their lives, so that by 2008, 80 per cent. of children under 16 who have been looked after for 2.5 or more years will have been living in the same placement for at least two years, or are placed for adoption."
	The percentage of looked after children under 16 who have been looked after for 2.5 or more years and who have been living in the same placement for at least two years, or placed for adoption, has remained stable at around 65 per cent. since this target was introduced. As a result, we have undertaken intensive targeted work with a number of local authorities to help support them in improving placement stability.

Carers: Training

Hywel Francis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions he has had recently with  (a) educational bodies and  (b) carers organisations on improving access to skills opportunities for carers; and if he will make a statement.

Phil Hope: Officials in my Department and in the Learning and Skills Council have discussed with Skills for Care, the Sector Skills Council for the care sector, how the national employer training programme in England, Train to Gain, could be made more relevant to the needs of employers and employees within the care sector, and are currently considering proposals.
	In England, Train to Gain offers employers in all sectors easy access, via a free skills brokerage service, to a full range of training provision including fully subsidised training leading to a Skills for Life or first full level 2 qualification, such as a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) at level 2. At the end of March 2007 a total of 6,550 employers from the health and social work sector had been engaged by Train to Gain which, at 21 per cent., represents the largest level of sectoral engagement in the programme. That is consistent with Train to Gain's predecessor—the Employer Training Pilots—where the care sector represented 26 per cent. of participating employers.
	From September 2006, all adults in England who do not have a full qualification at level 2 are entitled to free tuition to get one, even if they do not work for an employer who is involved with the Train to Gain programme. They can access this level 2 entitlement through their local further education college or a range of other publicly funded training providers.
	The Department of Health, together with 13 other Government Departments, has recently made a Skills Pledge commitment to train those staff members without a first full level 2 qualification and we anticipate this will lead to benefits for others who work in its sector including carers.

ChildLine: Lancashire

Lindsay Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children in Lancashire contacted ChildLine in each of the last five years.

Parmjit Dhanda: ChildLine is operated by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Government do not hold this sort of statistical data about the number of calls to the helpline.

Children in Care: Missing Persons

Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young looked after children went missing from care in each of the last five years; and in how many of these cases the whereabouts of the child are unknown.

Parmjit Dhanda: The number of young looked after children who went missing from care in the last five years and of those the number whose whereabouts were unknown is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Children looked after who were reported missing in the years ending 31 March, 2002-06( 1,)( )( 2,)( )( 3,)( )( 4,)( )( 5)  England 
			   Number 
			  Placement  2002( 1)  2003( 1)  2004( 2)  2005( 2)  2006( 2) 
			 All children missing from at least one placement 1,100 1,200 880 1,000 1,000 
			 In refuge (Section 51 of Children Act) 10 10 — — — 
			 Whereabouts known (not in refuge) 240 300 210 230 210 
			 Whereabouts unknown 820 900 670 790 820 
			 (1) Figures are taken from the SSDA903 one-third sample survey. (2) Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return which in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 covered all looked after children. (3) Historical figures may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials. (4) To maintain the confidentiality of each individual child, data at national level are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 or to the nearest 10 otherwise. Where the number was five or less (other than 0) this has been suppressed and replaced with a long dash (—). (5) A child is recorded with a missing placement if he/she is absent for more than 24 hours from his/her agreed placements.

Children in Care: Qualifications

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many looked after children achieved  (a) five or more GCSE grades A*-E,  (b) two or more A-levels and  (c) entry to a higher education establishment in each local education authority in the Eastern region in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Parmjit Dhanda: We do not collect information about the numbers of looked after children who achieve 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-E. However, data collected since 2000 and published in "Outcome Indicators for Looked After Children Twelve months to 30 September", show the percentage of children who were looked after for at least 12 months achieving five GCSEs (or equivalent) at grades A*-G by region. Data for the East of England are in the table as follows.
	
		
			  Percentage of children who were looked after for at least 12 months achieving 5 GCSEs (or equivalent) at grades A* to G ,  30 September 2000 - 06 ,  East of England 
			   Percentage obtaining at least 5 GCSEs (or equivalent) at grade A* to G 
			 2000 37 
			 2001 38 
			 2002 37 
			 2003 37 
			 2004 41 
			 2005 44 
			 2006 38 
		
	
	We do not collect data centrally on how many looked after children achieving two or more A-levels or entering a higher education establishment.

Departments: Energy

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what  (a) instructions are issued to staff in his Department and  (b) technical procedures are in place to shut down computers at night.

Parmjit Dhanda: Part  (a) Simple and easy to use guidance is available to all staff via the Departments' internal intranet system.
	Part  (b) All of the Department's computers have energy saving enabled by default. They also have software installed which enables them to be turned on and off remotely and any computers not being actively used at 11 pm every night are shut down using a centrally run automated programme.

Education: Research

David Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much his Department spent on educational research in the last two years for which figures are available; and how much was spent  (a) in-house and  (b) externally.

Bill Rammell: Over the last two financial years, 2005-06 and 2006-07, the Department has spent £26.5 million and £29.5 million respectively on externally commissioned research. The Department does not separately monitor in-house research activities; to collect this information would incur disproportionate costs.

Education: Research

David Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much his Department spent on educational research from the National Foundation for Educational Research in the last two years for which figures are available.

Bill Rammell: Over the last two financial years, 2005-06 and 2006-07, the Department has spent £1.9 million and £2.6 million respectively on research from the National Foundation for Educational Research.

Education: Young Offender Institutions

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what education is provided for juveniles aged between 10 and 17 years in  (a) young offender institutions,  (b) secure training centres and  (c) local authority secure children's homes; who provides the teaching; and for how many hours each week.

Phil Hope: The curriculum delivered to young people in custody is guided by "The Offender's Learning Journey (juveniles)" in young offender institutions (under the Learning and Skills Council's Offender Learning and Skills Service) and the National Specification for Learning and Skills in secure training centres and secure children's homes. It specifies a curriculum balance of approximately one third basic skills, one third academic or vocational subjects and one third physical education, arts, information and communications technology, and personal, social and health education. The learning is based on a young person's needs to support progression to education, training or employment on release, alongside a daily literacy and numeracy session and an hour per month with a career guidance professional.
	In young offender institutions education is provided under the Offenders Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) contracts managed and funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The LSC contracts with further education colleges as well as private providers to deliver the teaching. Latest Youth Justice Board performance statistics for 2005-06 indicate that young people received an average of 28.24 hours per week of education, training and personal development activity, against a target of 25 hours a week.
	Secure training centres are privately run; two contract with further education providers to deliver their education, one contracts with a private provider and the other delivers education in-house. The latest YJB performance statistics indicate that 99.4 per cent. of young people received 30 hours or more per week.
	Teachers in secure children's homes are usually recruited directly by their local authority. Latest figures show that 79.9 per cent. of young people in secure children's homes received 30 hours or more education, training and personal development activity a week.

Foster Care

Ashok Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what level of financial support is provided for children who are  (a) in recognised foster care and  (b) subject to special guardianship or residence orders with friends or family other than their parents.

Parmjit Dhanda: All approved foster carers receive an allowance in respect of each looked after child in their care. The level and structure of payments are at the discretion of local authorities and independent fostering providers. However, to create a fairer system of payments across the country, we have announced new national minimum allowance rates for foster carers. From April 2007, the national minimum allowance, which is subject to regional variation, is £100-£116 per week for a baby, rising to £151-£176 per week for an older teenager
	With regard to residence orders, local authorities have a power to pay an allowance, which is most often used to enable children to leave care to live with relatives.
	In addition, local authorities are required to make arrangements for the provision of special guardianship support services as prescribed by the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005; these include financial support. Before making any decision about financial support, local authorities are required to consider the needs of the child and the resources available to the special guardian. We have developed a model means test to assist local authorities in calculating appropriate levels of financial support for both adoption and special guardianship.

Nursery Schools: Copeland

Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many nursery school places were available in Copeland in  (a) 1996-97 and  (b) 2006-07.

Beverley Hughes: The available information is shown in the tables.
	
		
			  Number of part- time funded places( 1,)( )( 2,)( )( 3)  filled by three and four-year-olds—parliamentary constituency: Copeland—position in January 
			   Three-year-olds  Four-year-olds 
			   Maintained nursery and primary schools( 4)  Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers( 5)  Total three  year  olds  Maintained nursery and primary schools( 6)  Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers( 7)  Total four year  olds 
			 2006 400 240 630 580 100 690 
			 (1) A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. (2) Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. (3) Prior to 2004, information on early education places was derived from returns made by local authorities as part of the Nursery Education Grant (NEG) data collection exercise. These data were collected at local authority level, therefore, data for this parliamentary constituency 1996-97 are not available. (4) Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Schools Census. (5) Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Schools Census. (6) Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Schools Census. (7) Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Schools Census. 
		
	
	
		
			  Number of part-time funded places( 1,)( )( 2)  filled by three and four-year-olds—local authority: Cumbria—position in January each year 
			   Three-year-olds  Four-year-olds 
			   Maintained nursery and primary schools( 3)  Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers  Total three year olds  Maintained nursery and primary schools( 4)  Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers  Total four year olds 
			 1997 2,600 n/a 2,600 n/a n/a (5,6)5,600 
			 2006 2,400 (7)1,900 4,300 4,200 (8)670 4,800 
			 n/a = not available. (1) A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. (2 )Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. (3) Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Schools Census. (4) Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Schools Census. (5) Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise. (6) For the years 1997-2001, four year old sub national figures from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise can not be disaggregated between the maintained and private, voluntary and independent sectors. (7) Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Schools Census. (8) Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Schools Census. 
		
	
	The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release (SFR) 32/2006 "Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2006 (final)" in August. Figures for January 2007 will be published in SFR 19/2007 "Provision for children under five years of age in England: January 2007" at 9.30 am on 31 May 2007. Both are available on my Department's website:
	www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.

Pupils: Disability Aids

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills 
	(1)  what steps he is taking to ensure that disabled children and young people are provided with a wheelchair which meets their clinical, social and educational needs;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the extent to which wheelchair assessments for children support the delivery of the five key outcomes envisaged by Every Child Matters;
	(3)  what guidance his Department  (a) has issued and  (b) plans to issue on the role of primary care trusts and local education authorities in jointly commissioning and resourcing wheelchair services for children and young people in line with Standard 8 of the National Service Framework for Children.

Ivan Lewis: I have been asked to reply.
	The Department for Education and Skills leads the cross-government programme Every Child Matters; Change for Children but it is not responsible for all aspects of policy on children. The Department of Health is responsible for the health of disabled children and for wheelchair services for adults and children. It therefore leads the Be Healthy strand of the Every Child Matters programme.
	The Department has made it clear that eligibility for services and support is for councils to determine in a locally consistent manner. We believe that local-decision making by councils is an important means by which local people have the opportunity to influence decisions about resources, charging and priorities.
	The Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) report 'Out and About', which was published on 20 October 2006, highlights the importance of services being committed to standard 8 of the Children's National Service Framework (NSF). The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) will be referring to the best practice checklist, contained in the report, as part of its inspection process and will be specifically including wheelchair services.
	The Transforming Community Equipment and Wheelchair Services (TCEWS) programme is looking at how best to address the issues the services face through development of a new delivery model in collaboration with stakeholders. The Department for Education and Skills is working closely with us on this ongoing programme of work. We anticipate that the new model will be capable of implementation by April 2008
	The TCEWS programme was able to develop two potential models for wheelchair services in collaboration with users and their carers, seven wheelchair services, the wheelchair services managers and to refine the potential models with practitioners and suppliers. Further data are required before recommendations can be made for the way forward. A further data gathering exercise has been approved and an update will be provided in autumn 2007.
	As part of our commitment set out in the Children's NSF, we presented, on 16 April 2006, a new self-assessment tool for commissioners of children's and young people's health services. The tool will play an important role in ensuring that all commissioners are equipped and able to deliver improved quality and outcomes for services for children and young people.
	We are currently consulting on the Commissioning Framework for Health and Well-being which sets out how local commissioners can successfully commission services that improve health and well-being and help people remain independent. It also consults on a new duty for local authorities and primary care trusts to work together on a joint strategic needs assessment. This will outline current and predicted needs of the local population so providers can best promote the health and well-being of their local populations, particularly those groups that currently get a poor response from services.
	Every Child Matters aims to improve outcomes for disabled children through better integration of services, at strategic and operational levels, including the pooling of budgets. The introduction of children's trust arrangements should see services coming together to provide more joined-up and coherent services and make a major contribution to the NSF standard 8 vision for equipment provision.
	The Department does not collect centrally the average waiting times for children and young people under the age of 18 following assessment to receive a lightweight manual and a powered indoor and outdoor wheelchair in each of the last three years.
	The Department does not collect centrally the data for the percentage of children under the age of 18 years who met local eligibility criteria and received a powered indoor and outdoor wheelchair within three months, six months and one year of an assessment in the last three years.

School Food Trust

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been made available by his Department to  (a) the School Food Trust and  (b) each other similar organisation in each of the last three years.

Parmjit Dhanda: The School Food Trust has been allocated £1 million in 2005-06, £7 million in 2006-07 and £7 million in 2007-08 in grant in aid. There are no other Department for Education and Skills agencies working in this area.

Schools: Contraception

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the evidential basis was for the statement made by Ofsted in its report, "Time for Change? Personal, Social and Health Education", that school nurses are providing an important service by offering the morning after pill to pupils; whom Ofsted consulted before making this statement; what recent representations he has received about the Ofsted report from  (a) parents,  (b) head teachers and  (c) organisations; whether his Department plans to reply to the report; how many copies of the report were (i) published, (ii) sold and (iii) provided free of charge by Ofsted; how many copies of the report were provided to his Department; at what cost to (A) his Department and (B) Ofsted; what discussions (x) Ministers and (y) officials have had with Ofsted about the report; if he will place copies of the report in the Vote Office; how members of the public may obtain the report; at what cost; and if he will make a statement.

Jim Knight: The Department has not received representations from parents, head teachers or organisations about this report. The findings of Ofsted are given careful consideration but the Department does not routinely produce formal responses to such reports. Ministers and officials have ongoing discussions with Ofsted about issues relating to PSHE.
	Matters concerning the distribution of this particular report, and the evidential basis for judgments within it, are for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member on these matters and a copy of her reply has been placed in the Library. Ofsted's report can be accessed via this link
	www.Ofsted.gov.uk/publications
	 Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 2 May 2007:
	Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for reply.
	You asked what the evidential basis was for the statement made by Ofsted in its report, "Time for Change? Personal, Social and Health Education (HMI070049)", that school nurses are providing an important service by offering the morning after pill to pupils; whom Ofsted consulted before making this statement; how many copies of the report were (i) published, (ii) sold and (iii) provided free of charge by Ofsted; how many copies of the report were provided to the Department; at what cost to (A) the Department and (B) Ofsted; how members of the public may obtain the report; at what cost.
	Our report states that:
	"school nurses can also provide a valuable service, particularly in terms of providing emergency hormonal contraception and advising on other forms of contraception".
	This is in line with non-statutory guidance published by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The DfES publication "Teenage Pregnancy Next Steps: Guidance for Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts on Effective Delivery of Local Strategies" (2006) sets out the key findings from 'deep dive' reviews carried out by the Teenage Pregnancy Unit to identify factors responsible for the significant variation in performance between local areas, including between areas that are statistically similar. The guidance states:
	"Provision of young people focused contraception/sexual health services, trusted by teenagers and well known by professionals working with them". This was the factor most commonly cited as having the biggest impact on conception rate reductions in the high performing areas. Features of successful services reflected the "Best practice guidance on the provision of effective contraception and advice services for young people", issued by the Teenage Pregnancy Unit in 2000: easy accessibility in the right location with opening hours convenient to young people; provision of the full range of contraceptive methods, including long acting methods; a strong focus on sexual health promotion (as well as reactive services) through, for example, outreach work in schools, work with professionals to improve their ability to engage with young people on sexual health issues; and through highly visible publicity. Effective services also had a strong focus on meeting the specific needs of young men. All high-performing areas also had condom distribution schemes involving a wide range of local agencies and/or access to emergency contraception in non-clinical settings.
	Ofsted's own discussions with young people suggest they want and trust services in schools and welcome and recognise the commitment that schools show to meeting their wider health needs.
	The report is only available on the Ofsted website www.ofsted.gov.uk. It can be accessed at no cost to members of the public.
	A copy of this reply has been sent to Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools, and will be placed in the library of both Houses.

Young People

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps the Government have taken to implement the policies laid out in the paper Youth Matters: Next Steps; and whether implementation will be completed by April 2008.

Parmjit Dhanda: We published Youth Matters: Next Steps in March 2006, setting out our plans to reform services for young people, particularly to narrow the gap between the most disadvantaged and the rest. Considerable progress has been made to implement these policies over the past year. We have introduced new legislation (Education and Inspections Act 2006) which places a duty on all local authorities to secure access for young people in their area to sufficient positive activities and publicise these. Young people up and down the country are accessing the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital funds—enabling them to undertake wider activities and decide how the additional £115 million investment should be spent.
	The Government established the new charity, v, which has been tasked with encouraging more young people to volunteer. Significant progress has been made to reach a target of one million new young volunteers and attract private sector finance for these new opportunities.
	Through our reforms to targeted youth support, we are improving the range and coherence of services that support vulnerable young people in their pivotal teenage years. 14 children's trusts took part in the targeted support pathfinders during 2006 and guidance on developing targeted services was published in April 2007.
	Integrated youth support services will be in place throughout England by 2008. For Connexions, this means a major transition whereby the funding and responsibility for securing delivery of services, currently held by 47 Connexions partnerships, will pass to 150 local authorities working through children's trust arrangements by 2008.
	We are also developing new quality standards for young people's information advice and guidance (IAG) and the new standards will be published by July 2007.
	After careful consideration, we no longer intend to run the youth opportunity card pilots. We will continue to explore ways of improving the choices for young people in things to do and places to go while enabling them to have an increasing influence and a real say in what is provided.

Youth Opportunity Fund

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding has been allocated to the  (a) Youth Opportunity Fund and  (b) Youth Capital Fund in each of the last two years, broken down by funding stream; and how much each local authority has received.

Parmjit Dhanda: The Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) and the Youth Capital Fund (YCF) were announced in the Green Paper Youth Matters and have been available to local authorities from April 2006. A total of £115 million is available for both funds over the period 2006-08.
	£31 million per year for the Youth Opportunity Fund
	£26.5 million per year for the Youth Capital Fund
	Information about the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) and Youth Capital Fund (YCF) allocations by local authority was sent out in March 2006 in the guidance for the funds. The allocations are the same for each of the two years from 2006-07 and 2007-08 and are set out in the attached annex A of this letter.
	
		
			  Annex A: Table of allocations to local authorities for the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) and the Youth Capital Fund (YCF) for the period 2006-08 
			  £ 
			   Allocations for 2006-08 
			  Local authority  YOF  YCF allocations  YOF and YCF total 
			 Barking and Dagenham 252,878 218,719 471,597 
			 Barnet 399,112 345,200 744,312 
			 Barnsley 279,955 242,138 522,093 
			 Bath and North East Somerset 187,673 162,322 349,996 
			 Bedfordshire 454,632 393,220 847,852 
			 Bexley 265,836 229,927 495,762 
			 Birmingham 1,570,252 1,358,142 2,928,394 
			 Blackburn with Darwen 205,042 177,345 382,386 
			 Blackpool 187,406 162,091 349,497 
			 Bolton 373,622 323,153 696,774 
			 Bournemouth 180,000 144,809 324,809 
			 Bracknell Forest 180,000 130,000 310,000 
			 Bradford 724,019 626,218 1,350,237 
			 Brent 356,489 308,335 664,824 
			 Brighton and Hove 281,760 243,700 525,460 
			 Bromley 333,418 288,380 621,798 
			 Buckinghamshire 464,414 401,681 866,095 
			 Bury 199,958 172,948 372,906 
			 Calderdale 243,935 210,984 454,919 
			 Cambridgeshire 573,806 496,296 1,070,103 
			 Camden 258,123 223,255 481,378 
			 Cheshire 686,656 593,902 1,280,558 
			 City of Bristol 519,565 449,382 968,947 
			 City of Derby 300,806 260,173 560,979 
			 City of Hull 446,182 385,912 832,094 
			 City of Leicester 482,756 417,545 900,301 
			 City of London 100,000 100,000 200,000 
			 City of Nottingham 462,716 400,212 862,928 
			 City of Peterborough 247,962 214,468 462,430 
			 City of Plymouth 318,696 275,647 594,343 
			 City of Westminster 314,317 271,859 586,175 
			 City of York 180,000 139,825 319,825 
			 Cornwall 512,230 443,038 955,268 
			 Coventry 428,393 370,526 798,918 
			 Croydon 415,687 359,536 775,224 
			 Cumbria 542,710 469,400 1,012,110 
			 Darlington 180,000 130,000 310,000 
			 Derbyshire 782,874 677,123 1,459,997 
			 Devon 682,636 590,426 1,273,062 
			 Doncaster 418,779 362,210 780,990 
			 Dorset 372,109 321,844 693,953 
			 Dudley 378,807 327,638 706,445 
			 Durham 620,040 536,285 1,156,324 
			 Ealing 352,818 305,159 657,977 
			 East Riding of Yorks 317,130 274,292 591,422 
			 East Sussex 546,005 472,251 1,018,256 
			 Enfield 391,510 338,625 730,136 
			 Essex 1,419,344 1,227,619 2,646,963 
			 Gateshead 214,386 185,426 399,812 
			 Gloucestershire 582,837 504,107 1,086,944 
			 Greenwich 416,974 360,649 777,623 
			 Hackney 321,816 278,345 600,162 
			 Halton 189,728 164,100 353,828 
			 Hammersmith and Fulham 202,812 175,416 378,228 
			 Hampshire 1,188,545 1,027,996 2,216,542 
			 Haringey 370,631 320,566 691,196 
			 Harrow 231,244 200,007 431,251 
			 Hartlepool 180,000 130,000 310,000 
			 Havering 245,617 212,439 458,056 
			 Herefordshire 180,000 151,947 331,947 
			 Hertfordshire 1,193,412 1,032,206 2,225,618 
			 Hillingdon 385,753 333,646 719,399 
			 Hounslow 291,452 252,083 543,535 
			 Isle of Wight 180,000 144,534 324,534 
			 Isles of Scilly 100,000 100,000 200,000 
			 Islington 272,706 235,869 508,575 
			 Kensington and Chelsea 262,457 227,005 489,462 
			 Kent 1,468,790 1,270,386 2,739,176 
			 Kingston Upon Thames 180,000 144,402 324,402 
			 Kirklees 459,174 397,149 856,323 
			 Knowsley 276,284 238,963 515,247 
			 Lambeth 329,266 284,788 614,054 
			 Lancashire 1,315,799 1,138,060 2,453,859 
			 Leeds 991,853 857,873 1,849,726 
			 Leicestershire 651,722 563,687 1,215,410 
			 Lewisham 395,379 341,972 737,351 
			 Lincolnshire 679,758 587,937 1,267,695 
			 Liverpool 863,393 746,766 1,610,159 
			 Luton 260,794 225,566 486,361 
			 Manchester 689,456 596,325 1,285,781 
			 Medway 300,430 259,848 560,277 
			 Merton 228,847 197,934 426,780 
			 Middlesbrough 267,333 231,221 498,554 
			 Milton Keynes 262,495 227,037 489,532 
			 Newcastle upon Tyne 359,041 310,542 669,583 
			 Newham 401,558 347,316 748,874 
			 Norfolk 845,192 731,023 1,576,215 
			 North East Lincolnshire 254,643 220,246 474,889 
			 North Lincolnshire 192,412 166,421 358,833 
			 North Somerset 195,284 168,905 364,189 
			 North Tyneside 222,523 192,464 414,987 
			 North Yorkshire 565,844 489,410 1,055,253 
			 Northamptonshire 755,213 653,199 1,408,413 
			 Northumberland 359,620 311,043 670,663 
			 Nottinghamshire 914,550 791,013 1,705,563 
			 Oldham 320,862 277,520 598,381 
			 Oxfordshire 692,403 598,873 1,291,275 
			 Poole 180,000 130,000 310,000 
			 Portsmouth 254,600 220,208 474,808 
			 Reading 181,369 156,870 338,240 
			 Redbridge 264,869 229,090 493,959 
			 Redcar and Cleveland 216,042 186,859 402,901 
			 Richmond Upon Thames 181,930 157,355 339,286 
			 Rochdale 290,679 251,414 542,093 
			 Rotherham 356,375 308,236 664,611 
			 Rutland 100,000 100,000 200,000 
			 Salford 322,494 278,932 601,426 
			 Sandwell 470,218 406,701 876,918 
			 Sefton 346,167 299,407 645,574 
			 Sheffield 659,372 570,304 1,229,675 
			 Shropshire 287,492 248,657 536,149 
			 Slough 180,000 132,719 312,719 
			 Solihull 255,902 221,335 477,237 
			 Somerset 535,143 462,856 997,998 
			 South Gloucestershire 265,914 229,994 495,908 
			 South Tyneside 221,162 191,287 412,449 
			 Southampton 277,281 239,826 517,107 
			 Southend on Sea 188,616 163,138 351,753 
			 Southwark 443,511 383,602 827,113 
			 St. Helens 237,953 205,810 443,763 
			 Staffordshire 902,838 780,882 1,683,720 
			 Stockport 320,047 276,815 596,861 
			 Stockton on Tees 261,924 226,543 488,467 
			 Stoke on Trent 318,267 275,275 593,542 
			 Suffolk 685,646 593,029 1,278,676 
			 Sunderland 401,711 347,448 749,158 
			 Surrey 1,176,208 1,017,325 2,193,533 
			 Sutton 228,700 197,807 426,508 
			 Swindon 222,439 192,392 414,830 
			 Tameside 301,844 261,071 562,914 
			 Telford and Wrekin 206,598 178,691 385,289 
			 Thurrock 181,596 157,066 338,662 
			 Torbay 180,000 130,000 310,000 
			 Tower Hamlets 424,408 367,079 791,487 
			 Trafford 215,294 186,212 401,505 
			 Wakefield 392,775 339,719 732,494 
			 Walsall 419,776 363,073 782,849 
			 Waltham Forest 345,533 298,858 644,391 
			 Wandsworth 292,892 253,328 546,221 
			 Warrington 203,578 176,079 379,657 
			 Warwickshire 530,715 459,026 989,740 
			 West Berkshire 180,000 151,015 331,015 
			 West Sussex 778,086 672,982 1,451,068 
			 Wigan 379,269 328,037 707,306 
			 Wiltshire 432,110 373,740 805,850 
			 Windsor and Maidenhead 180,000 141,809 321,809 
			 Wirral 420,943 364,082 785,025 
			 Wokingham 180,000 145,441 325,441 
			 Wolverhampton 351,624 304,126 655,750 
			 Worcestershire 564,748 488,462 1,053,209 
			 
			 England (1)61,500,000 53,000,000 114,500,000 
			 (1) Excluding £500,000 over 2 years which will be used to evaluate the YOF and YCF (topsliced from the YOF) Combined total for allocations over two years is £114.5 million Overall investment for the YOF/YCF: £115 million over two years  Notes: Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) and the Youth Capital Fund (YCF) for the period 2006-08 This table shows the amounts allocated to local authorities for the YOF and the YCF separately over the two year period 2006-08 as follows: Column 1 - local authority in alphabetical order Column 2 - total amount over two years for YOF Column 3 - total amount over two years for YCF Column 4 - YOF and YCF combined total allocations over two years

Youth Services: Finance

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the Government's budget is for spending on youth services in 2007-08.

Parmjit Dhanda: The Government do not set a budget for spending on youth services. Local authorities decide what should be spent, taking into account Government policy and local needs. For 2006-07 local authorities in England reported that they intended to budget £403 million on youth services. Figures for 2007-08 are not yet available.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Transport: Crime

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many crimes were reported on Northern Ireland's transport network in each of the last three years, broken down by type.

Paul Goggins: The PSNI have provided the following information:
	
		
			  Number of offences recorded 
			  Crime type  2003-04  2004-05  2005-06  1 April 2006  to  28 February 2007 
			 Offences against the person 151 127 133 69 
			 Sexual offences 5 7 12 12 
			 Burglary 1 0 1 0 
			 Robbery 5 5 17 2 
			 Theft 116 89 91 88 
			 Criminal damage 887 699 930 570 
			 All other offences(1) 6 5 6 5 
			 Total crime 1,171 932 1,190 746 
			 (1) All other offences includes fraud and forgery, offences against the state and other notifiable offences.  Source: Central Statistics Unit, PSNI 
		
	
	These statistics include offences where the location of the offence was a bus or train, the property involved was a bus or train, or the victim was a bus or train driver.
	These figures are provisional and may be subject to revision.

PRIME MINISTER

Departmental Responsibilities: Home Office

Oliver Heald: To ask the Prime Minister 
	(1)  pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 29 March 2007,  Official Report, columns 133-5WS, on machinery of Government change, what the estimated cost is of the machinery of Government changes; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  if he will place in the Library all cost evaluations undertaken on the machinery of Government changes.

Tony Blair: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 25 May 2006,  Official Report, column 1983W, to the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies).

Departments: Ministerial Policy Advisers

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Prime Minister who the health policy adviser is at No. 10 Downing street.

Tony Blair: Professor Paul Corrigan.

Departments: Ministerial Policy Advisers

Mark Hoban: To ask the Prime Minister 
	(1)  how many of his special advisers have been employed as Government special advisers for four years or longer;
	(2)  for what reason 25 special advisers named for the Prime Minister were listed in his written ministerial statement of 24 July 2006,  Official Report, column 87WS, on special advisers, but salary details included for 22; and how many of his listed special advisers are unpaid.

Tony Blair: Since 2003, the Government have published on an annual basis the names and overall cost of special advisers and the number in each pay band. I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement I made on 24 July 2006,  Official Report, columns 86-91WS. Information on the number of special advisers before 2003 was provided at regular intervals. This information is available in the Libraries of the House.
	The information requested on salary details can be found in the pay band table included in the annual list.

Joint Intelligence Committee: Official History

Dai Davies: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his written ministerial statement of 26 April 2007,  Official Report, column 27WS, for what reasons he appointed Dr. Michael Goodman to write the official history of the Joint Intelligence Committee; and if he will place in the Library Dr. Goodman's biographical details.

Tony Blair: I have appointed Dr. Michael Goodman to write the official history of the Joint Intelligence Committee because he is an expert in the field. Dr. Goodman is a lecturer at King's College London where he specialises in the study of intelligence.

Members: Correspondence

John Baron: To ask the Prime Minister when he will reply to the letter dated 2 May 2007 from the hon. Member for Billericay on the subject of his oral answer of 2 May 2007,  Official Report, column 1505, on Iraq.

Tony Blair: My Office has replied to the hon. Member.

Petitions

David Amess: To ask the Prime Minister what recent representations he has received on e-petitions; how much was spent on promoting e-petitions in each year since the project was created; how much is planned for the next 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Tony Blair: Since November my office has received approximately 50 letters about e-petitions.
	No costs have been incurred in promoting e-petitions, and no such costs are planned for the next 12 months. All spending on e-petitions is included in the overall cost of the No. 10 website.

Written Questions

John Baron: To ask the Prime Minister when he expects to reply to question 136508, on Iraq, tabled by the hon. Member for Billericay on 3 May.

Tony Blair: I replied to the hon. Member on 14 May 2007,  Official Report, columns 469-70W.

JUSTICE

Electoral Fraud

Diana Johnson: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what plans she has to bring forward proposals to strengthen the law on electoral fraud.

Bridget Prentice: The Government have taken significant steps in recent years to tighten up the security of the electoral process, and assist the police and prosecutors in tackling electoral fraud. These measures are primarily established by the Electoral Administration Act 2006 and associated secondary legislation.
	We will wish to consider the effectiveness of these new measures in light of the experience of them at the May 2007 elections.

Ministerial Visits

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice which prisons she plans to visit before the end of June 2007.

Robert Wilson: To ask the Minister of State Ministry of Justice which prisons she intends to visit before the end of June 2007.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Members of our ministerial team will continue to visit prisons, probation offices and regional offender managers throughout England and Wales over the coming months.

Legal Aid

Anne Milton: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what assessment she has made of the effect of her legal aid changes on access to justice.

Vera Baird: Legal aid reform will mean that we can help as many people as possible and place legal aid on a sustainable basis for the future. It will enable us to shift resources away from criminal legal aid, so that we can spend a greater proportion on civil and family legal advice and assistance.

Electoral Administrators

Chris Mole: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what discussions she has had with the Electoral Commission on performance standards for electoral administrators.

Bridget Prentice: I have met with Sam Younger, Chairman of the Commission to discuss performance standards. I have also formally responded to the Commission's consultation paper on developing registration performance indicators. A pilot of these is now well under way and the Commission intends to roll out a set of electoral registration performance indicators to administrators by December 2007.

Voter Registration

Clive Betts: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what further steps her Department plans to take to increase voter registration.

Bridget Prentice: The Government are committed to increasing registration rates. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 has a number of measures to increase levels of electoral registration. These include:
	Imposing a new duty on Electoral Registration Officers to take all necessary steps to ensure a comprehensive register.
	Increasing the time available for registration by enabling people to register up to 11 days before the election.
	Introducing performance standards for Electoral Registration Officers. We expect the performance standard concerning electoral registration to come into effect by December 2007.
	The Government are currently evaluating the effectiveness of these new measures and keep this area under review to identify initiatives that will further increase levels of electoral registration.

Electoral Register

John Robertson: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice if she will place a duty on electoral registration officers to use all available databases to compile the electoral register.

Bridget Prentice: The Electoral Administration Act 2006 introduced a new duty to help Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) increase registration rates and compile a more accurate register. This includes:
	sending the annual canvass form more than once to an address;
	making house-to-house inquiries on one or more occasions;
	making contact by such other means as the registration officer thinks appropriate; and
	inspecting any records that the ERO is permitted to inspect, such as council tax and housing databases.
	I am pleased to say that as of 1 December 2006, the number of registered electors in the UK has increased by just over half a million people.

Electoral Register

Mark Hoban: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice whether the Electoral Register will be updated automatically following changes of address notified to the National Identity Register.

Bridget Prentice: The Government have no plans to link the electoral registration process to the National Identity Register.

Magistrates Courts

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what assessment she has made of the adequacy of facilities for victims and witnesses in magistrates courts.

Harriet Harman: We have undertaken two audits in the past two years to establish how existing witness facilities meet established minimum standards. Following those audits over £3.3 million has been invested in both magistrates and Crown courts to improve facilities. Examples of work undertaken include the re-decoration and re-furnishing of witness waiting rooms as well as the purchase of toys and games for child witnesses.

Magistrates Courts: Lancashire

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice whether she plans to review her decision on the merging of magistrates courts in Lancashire.

Harriet Harman: I have no plans to review my decision on the merging of Chorley, Ormskirk and South Ribble local justice areas.

Absent Voting: Gloucestershire

David Drew: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what percentage of the electorate in each local authority in Gloucestershire has registered for a postal vote.

Bridget Prentice: The Government hold information on registration figures only as of 1 December 2006, and the number of postal voters as of 1 January 2007. Using this information provides the following percentages for the local government electorate in Gloucestershire:
	
		
			   Percentage 
			 Cheltenham 20.58 
			 Cotswold 15.74 
			 Forest of Dean 11.92 
			 Gloucester 17.17 
			 Stroud 10.91 
			 Tewkesbury 8.96 
		
	
	Updated information may be obtained directly from local authorities.

Abu Hamza

Chris Mullin: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice pursuant to the answer of 19 February 2007,  Official Report, column 290W, on Abu Hamza, when she expects to be in a position to provide details of claims on the legal aid fund by lawyers acting for Abu Hamza.

Vera Baird: £131,412 has been paid from the legal aid fund so far. However, the full costs are estimated to be £1 million. A Recovery of Defence Costs Order (RDCO) was made against Abu Hamza to pay this back to the Legal Services Commission (LSC).

Administration of Justice: Females

Edward Garnier: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice when she expects to publish her response to Baroness Corston's review of women in the criminal justice system.

Vera Baird: The Government have given a broad welcome to the report. The 43 recommendations which it makes are wide-ranging and propose action by a number of different Government Departments and organisations. We are carefully exploring the recommendations with all the Departments and agencies concerned and will develop a detailed response as soon as possible.

Ballot Papers: Greater London

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many and what percentage of ballot papers were spoilt  (a) in total and  (b) in each Assembly constituency at the last (i) London mayoral and (ii) Greater London Assembly elections; and if she will make a statement.

Bridget Prentice: The following table shows the number and percentage of the rejected (spoilt) ballot papers at each constituency in the Assembly elections, and the total number for the election of the Mayor of London on 10 June 2004.
	
		
			 London Mayor 
			   London Assembly member: total rejected  Constituency Assembly member:  t otal rejected  1st choice:  t otal rejected  2nd choice:  t otal rejected 
			  Constituency  Number  Percentage  Number  Percentage  Number  Percentage  Number  Percentage 
			 Barnet and Camden 3,204 2.2 7,538 5.3 3,552 2.5 25,917 18.2 
			 Bexley and Bromley 3,207 1.9 5,766 3.5 3,765 2.3 25,987 15.8 
			 Brent and Harrow 3,697 2.9 9,141 7.2 4,334 3.4 26,356 20.9 
			 City and East 5,262 3.6 15,287 10.5 7,321 5.0 30,047 20.6 
			 Croydon and Sutton 3,166 2.2 6,727 4.8 3,675 2.6 22,062 15.6 
			 Ealing and Hillingdon 4,375 2.9 8,715 5.9 4,779 3.2 28,147 19.0 
			 Enfield and Haringey 3,116 2.5 7,953 6.4 3,746 3.0 23,052 18.6 
			 Greenwich and Lewisham 2,712 2.3 6,866 5.9 3,049 2.6 17,633 15.2 
			 Havering and Redbridge 3,638 2.7 7,271 5.3 4,028 2.9 22,554 16.5 
			 Lambeth and Southwark 3,471 2.8 10,248 8.2 3,794 3.0 19,647 15.8 
			 Merton and Wandsworth 3,134 2.4 6,993 5.3 3,425 2.6 21,509 16.4 
			 North East 3,521 2.5 10,698 7.7 4,375 3.1 22,854 16.4 
			 South West 3,018 1.9 6,969 4.5 3,692 2.4 21,957 14.2 
			 West Central 3,105 2.4 8,323 6.7 3,339 2.7 21,383 17.2 
			 Total 48,536 2.5 118,495 6.2 56,874 3 329,105 17.1

Ballot Papers: Greater London

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what steps she plans to take to ensure that in preparation for the elections for the London Mayor and Assembly  (a) the layout of the ballot paper is improved to reduce the risk of spoilt ballot papers and  (b) (i) scrutiny of spoilt papers by counting agents and (ii) decision making by the returning officer and staff is improved; and if she will make a statement.

Bridget Prentice: The Government have been working closely with the Greater London Returning Officer in the development of the updated rules for the conduct of elections to the GLA. As part of this process, the GLRO has undertaken a detailed study of the design of the ballot papers, including user testing of different possible formats (four for the mayoral election and two for the Assembly). Equally, the work on developing the new GLA elections rules will specifically look at the provisions for counting of votes to maximise transparency of the count process. The GLRO will look at what training and support will need to be provided to each of the constituency returning officers to achieve consistency in the decisions on rejected ballot papers.

Departments: Marketing

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what she expects the cost to be of replacing the  (a) signs,  (b) stationery,  (c) clothing and  (d) other items bearing the name or insignia of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Vera Baird: The full costs to replace the  (a) signs,  (b) stationery,  (c) clothing and  (d) other items bearing the name or insignia of the Department for Constitutional Affairs have not yet been identified due to the launch of the Ministry of Justice not occurring until 9 May 2007.

Electoral Register: Barnet

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what steps she is taking to monitor and improve  (a) electoral registration and  (b) postal vote registration in Barnet; and if she will make a statement.

Bridget Prentice: One of the aims of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 (EA Act) was to improve electoral registration. Section 9 of the EA Act sets out the necessary steps that all Electoral Registration Officers must take to maintain the electoral register.
	These steps include sending the canvass form more than once to any address, conducting house to house inquiries and making contact by such means as appropriate. Each local authority has adopted an approach that is appropriate to their local circumstances, within the context of the necessary steps.
	A later registration date was also available for the May 2007 local elections allowing electors to register up to 11 days before the poll.
	Section 67 of the EA Act requires the Electoral Commission to set and monitor performance standards for electoral services and this will also help to monitor and improve electoral registration.
	As of 1 December 2006 the number of registered electors in Barnet had increased by 5,580. We have not taken any specific action to improve postal vote registration, as how an elector chooses to vote is a matter of choice for the elector. A person can now apply for a postal vote at the same time as they apply to register to vote. The annual canvass form now includes a tick box for this purpose and the poll card issued to electors also provides information about how to apply for a postal vote. The requirement for the applicant to provide a signature and date of birth is also an improvement to the security of the postal vote process.

Electoral Systems

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice whether the Government have commenced their review of electoral systems in the United Kingdom.

Bridget Prentice: The review is under way in the Ministry of Justice and commenced after the May 2005 elections.

Electoral Systems

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what the timetable is for the publication of the Government's review of electoral systems in the United Kingdom.

Bridget Prentice: The review is currently under way in the Ministry of Justice and it is anticipated that the review will be completed within the lifetime of this Parliament. Ministers will take decisions on any next steps, if necessary, after the review is completed.

Electoral Systems

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many full-time equivalent civil servants have been allocated to work on the Government's review of electoral systems in the United Kingdom.

Bridget Prentice: The number of full-time equivalent civil servants working on the review has varied over time. The work is currently allocated to one full-time equivalent civil servant. However work has been spread among a number of people with different levels of resource at different times.

Fines: Victim Support Schemes

Humfrey Malins: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what  (a) internal accountancy procedures and  (b) computer programmes are in place to ensure that surcharge moneys paid by defendants in the criminal courts are kept separate from fines and compensation.

Harriet Harman: When results from cases are input into existing magistrates courts computer systems, financial impositions are split to show the breakdown of compensation, Victims Surcharge, costs and fine. When payments are received this then enables the courts to identify at the end of the month the sum to be paid to a Victims Fund.

Freedom of Information

Dai Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how implementation of freedom of information (FOI) legislation will be carried out by the new Ministry; which Minister is responsible for implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; how the Ministry plans to continue the consultation on FOI fees amendments initiated by the former Department for Constitutional Affairs; and if she will make a statement.

Vera Baird: Arrangements for the operation and maintenance of the Freedom of Information Act within the Ministry of Justice remain the same as those in the former Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA). The right hon. the Baroness Ashton of Upholland remains the Minister responsible for freedom of information, reporting to the Secretary of State for Justice.
	The consultation on Draft Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2007, initiated by the former DCA will continue as planned. Responses to the supplementary paper and any further comments on the draft regulations contained in the full consultation paper are still invited by 21 June 2007.
	The Government remain committed to establishing a culture of freedom of information across the whole of the public sector, through advice, guidance and improved publication schemes.

Postal Voting

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice pursuant to the oral answer of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed of 17 April 2007,  Official Report, column 159, on postal voting, in what manner the regulations were not correctly drafted.

Bridget Prentice: As I mentioned in my written answer to the hon. Gentleman on 31 January 2007,  Official Record, column 336W, there has been a difficulty with the legislative drafting in relation to signing for a ballot paper in a polling station. Additional measures to improve the security of postal voting were implemented in full for elections on 3 May 2007, as Parliament intended.

Prison Service: Manpower

Henry Bellingham: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what estimate she has made of the number of additional prison officers required to negate the need for  (a) contracted supplementary hours and  (b) time off in lieu hours; and if she will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: No such estimate has been made, as it is Prison Service policy to recruit to full staffing levels and contract supplementary hours and time off in lieu are used only to address temporary staffing shortfalls in establishments. Both mechanisms are resourced from within the existing staffing budgets made available to establishments.

Prison Service: Property

Nicholas Clegg: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice pursuant to the answer of 3 May 2007,  Official Report, column 87W, on prison service: property, what assessment she has made of local public opinion on the establishment of new prisons in  (a) Maghull,  (b) Belmarsh,  (c) Featherstone,  (d) London/Essex and  (e) South Wales.

Gerry Sutcliffe: NOMS held public exhibitions over several days at Maghull and Belmarsh. A similar exhibition will be held for Featherstone. When sites have been identified in London/Essex and South Wales similar exhibitions are planned. Opportunities for assessments of public opinion are provided by the planning process, through which NOMS planning applications are made available to the general public. An opportunity for local MPs to assess public opinion arises when NOMS informs them of potential major prison planning developments as a part of its standard practice to keep MPs informed ahead of such developments.

Prisoners Release: Acquittals

John Hemming: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice pursuant to the answer of 30 April 2007,  Official Report, column 1420W, on prisoners release: acquittals, in what cases remand prisoners are entitled to  (a) travel warrants and  (b) housing benefit and council tax benefit and mortgage interest for a limited time.

Gerry Sutcliffe: All prisoners who are released from prison custody are issued with a travel warrant to an agreed destination. Housing and council tax benefit and mortgage interest are available on release in all cases where prisoners meet the eligibility criteria to receive these benefits. If a remand prisoner is already in receipt of these benefits they continue to be payable for up to 52 weeks or until conviction.

Prisoners: Government Assistance

John Hemming: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what  (a) financial and  (b) other assistance is available to prisoners on release after serving their term.

Gerry Sutcliffe: On release all prisoners that serve a custodial sentence of more than 14 days receive a discharge grant of £46.
	The Government are committed to ensuring that all prisoners are able to access resettlement programmes and practical support within the prisons and on release to effectively help them re-integrate back into the community.
	Our cross-Government programme of work seeks to reduce re-offending by rehabilitating offenders so they are less likely to commit crime. This is being done by tackling the root causes of offending behaviour and working to reduce social exclusion. The priority is to ensure that offenders are able to access mainstream services and, in particular, have accommodation and sustainable employment on release.

Prisoners: Self-mutilation

Harry Cohen: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what provision is in place for the treatment of women prisoners deemed at risk of self-harm in settings outside the prison estate.

Gerry Sutcliffe: An assessment and care planning tool known as an Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork plan (ACCT) is opened for women (and men) prisoners identified at risk of self-harm in prison. If an at-risk prisoner is escorted out of the prison setting, the ACCT plan and its instructions to support the prisoner and keep them safe goes with them. Where risk is identified before a prisoner new to custody reaches prison, court or escort staff will open a suicide/self-harm warning form to keep the prisoner safe until they arrive at prison (where ACCT procedures are activated).

Prisoners: Sexual Offences

Jeremy Browne: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many prisoners convicted of a sex offence were released under the Home Detention Curfew scheme in each year since 1999.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information on the numbers of prisoners released from prison establishments in England and Wales on Home Detention Curfew for offences recorded as sexual in the years since 1999 can be found in the following table. The figures are taken from volumes of the Prison Statistics in England Wales for the years between 1999 and 2002, and volumes of the Offender Management Caseload Statistics between 2003 and 2005. Copies of these volumes are available from the House of Commons Library and at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/omcs.html
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level. As noted in the footnote to table 10.19 in the 2005 table, the reasons for recall from Home Detention Curfew are sometimes confused with the reason for the original imprisonment, and inquiries show that that is the case with the two sexual offenders in the table for that year. Further investigations suggest that around 5 per cent. of offence types recorded do not relate to the offence for which they were sentenced and subsequently released on Home Detention Curfew, but relate to offences committed after release from prison and before the licence expiry date for their sentence.
	
		
			  Prisoners released on Home Detention Curfew since 1999 who were serving sentences for sexual offences 
			   Number 
			 1999 24 
			 2000 29 
			 2001 17 
			 2002 20 
			 2003 8 
			 2004 6 
			 2005 2

Voting Rights: Commonwealth

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice whether citizens of Commonwealth nations who are  (a) expelled from the Commonwealth and  (b) suspended from the Commonwealth who are residing in the United Kingdom with leave to remain are eligible to vote in UK elections.

Bridget Prentice: The Representation of the People Act 1983 provides that those entitled to register and vote in elections in the United Kingdom (UK) include citizens of Commonwealth countries who are lawfully resident here.
	The definition of a Commonwealth country for electoral purposes is that it should be included as such in the list contained in schedule 3 to the British Nationality Act 1981. It follows that those citizens of a country that has been expelled or suspended from the Commonwealth who are lawfully resident in the UK remain eligible to vote in UK elections unless the 1981 Act is amended specifically to delete from schedule 3 the name of that country.

DUCHY OF LANCASTER

Departments: Internet

Theresa May: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for which Government websites she is responsible; how many visitors each received in the latest period for which figures are available; and what the cost  (a) was of establishing and  (b) has been of maintaining each site.

Patrick McFadden: As part of the Government's website rationalisation strategy, the Cabinet Office is focusing its own internet presence on two websites—the civil service site (www.civilservice.gov.uk), and the Cabinet Office site (www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk). All other Cabinet Office websites will be closed by March 2011.
	The following table contains a list of the websites for which Cabinet Office is currently responsible and the latest available numbers of visitors to each.
	
		
			   Visitors( 1) 
			  Website  Period  Number 
			 Civil Service (www.civilservice.gov.uk) January-December 2006 242,196 
			 Cabinet Office (www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk) April 2006-March 2007 757,502 
			 Better Regulation Portal (www.betterregulation.gov.uk) April 2006-March 2007 101,732 
			 Government Communication Network (www.comms.gov.uk) April 2006-March 2007 52,716 
			 Chief Information Officers Council (www.cio.gov.uk) April 2006-March 2007 90,743 
			 UK Honours (www.honours.gov.uk) April 2006-March 2007 142,034 
			 UK Resilience (www.ukresilience.info) and Preparing for Emergencies (www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk) January-December 2006 265,485 
			 Emergency Planning College (www.epcollege.gov.uk) April 2006-March 2007 24,749 
			 National Steering Committee on Warning and Informing the Public (www.nscwip.info) April 2006-March 2007 5,600 
			 Civil Service Pensions (www.civilservice-pensions.gov.uk) January-December 2006 73,227 
			 Civil Service Recruitment Gateway (www. careers.civil-service.gov.uk) October 2005-September 2006 683,130 
			 Faststream (www.faststream.gov.uk) September 2005-August 2006 289,130 
			 GovTalk (www.govtalk.gov.uk) May 2006-April 2007 635,775 
			 (1) Specific days between June 2006 and March 2007 are not included due to technical issues 
		
	
	The Government Communication Network website was set-up in 2004-05 at a cost of £30,000;
	The Civil Service Recruitment Gateway and Faststream sites have a combined maintenance cost of £90,972 per annum;
	GovTalk has a maintenance cost of £21,600 per annum.
	For all other Cabinet Office websites it is not possible to separate out costs for establishing or maintaining the websites because they were set-up using in-house resources and sit on infrastructure shared with other external sites including the Advisory Commission for Business Appointments and the House of Lords appointments commission.

TREASURY

Departmental Hospitality

Oliver Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department's expenditure on hospitality and entertainment was in  (a) 1996-97 and  (b) 2005-06.

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was spent on hospitality by his Department in the financial year 2006-07.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department spent on hosting dinners and other social functions in each year since 1997.

John Healey: The Treasury classifies all expenditure on food and refreshments for visiting guests as 'official entertainment' including those served at meetings with, or receptions held for, external stakeholders and overseas visitors, and any costs incurred therein when booking rooms and catering staff. All such expenditure is made in accordance with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on the principles set out in "Government Accounting". Relevant expenditure in 2006-07, subject to any adjustments arising from the Comptroller and Auditor General's audit of the department's 2006-07 resource accounts, was £197,000, a reduction of approximately £60,000 compared to relevant expenditure in 2005-06, and £15,000 compared to 2004-05.
	For details of spending in earlier years I refer the hon. Gentlemen to the answers given to the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) on 14 February 2006,  Official Report, columns 1833-34 and to the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne) on 15 December 2004,  Official Report, column 1084W.

Departments: Sick Leave

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people took sick leave for stress in his Department in the last 12 months; and what percentage of the total staff number this represents.

John Healey: In the 12-month period ending 31 March 2007, 27 people took stress-related sick leave, representing 2.4 per cent. of the total staff number.

Departments: Transfer of Questions

Mark Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many questions tabled by hon. and right hon. Members to other Departments for written answer have been transferred to his Department since May 2006;
	(2)  how many questions tabled by hon. and right hon. Members to his Department for written answer have been transferred to other Departments since May 2005.

John Healey: 624 written questions have been transferred from the Treasury to other Departments since May 2005. Treasury Ministers answered 9,147 written questions in the same period.
	Information relating to the number of questions transferred from other Departments to the Treasury is not available. However, officials believe transfers in to be roughly in balance with transfers out.

Gift Aid

Iain Duncan Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what percentage of Gift Aid payments were made to overseas development charities in  (a) 2003-04,  (b) 2004-05 and  (c) 2005-06;
	(2)  what methodology his Department used to measure the effectiveness of Millennium Gift Aid in 2000 in raising money for overseas development charities.

Stephen Timms: holding answer 14 May 2007
	HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) do not record the type of charity for Gift Aid claims. The information requested on the percentage of payments made to overseas development charities is not available and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
	No evaluation has been produced of the Millennium Gift Aid (MGA) scheme and HMRC do not retain separate statistics for MGA donations.

Members: Correspondence

Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to answer the letter to him dated 26 March from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Mr. L. Rowe.

Edward Balls: I have replied to the right hon. Member.

Tax: Self-Assessment

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 26 April 2007,  Official Report, column 1319W, on tax: self-assessment, for what reason the figure for penalties paid for the year to end October 2006 is not available; when he expects the data to become available; and if he will publish the data once available.

John Healey: The Debt Management and Banking annual accounting figures go through a validation process which for the 2006 figures will be complete by the end of June 2007.
	Once this process is completed HMRC will release the requested information.

Taxpayers: Charitable Donations

Iain Duncan Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of individual donations received by all UK charities in  (a) 2003-04,  (b) 2004-05 and  (c) 2005-06 was given by UK taxpayers.

Stephen Timms: holding answer 14 May 2007
	The information requested can not be provided as HM Revenue and Customs only collects data on those donations which qualify for tax relief. It is estimated that about one-third of donors to charities used Gift Aid in 2004-05.

VAT: Care Homes

David Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will bring forward proposals to change the application of VAT rules on the new build of care facilities.

John Healey: VAT is not chargeable on the construction of new buildings used for a relevant charitable purpose or for the provision of residential care to elderly or disabled people. Similarly, the construction of a hospice for a charity is zero-rated. However, should a care home be intended for use as a hospital or similar institution, VAT is chargeable at the standard rate of 17.5 per cent.
	A reduced VAT rate of 5 per cent. applies to the conversion of a non-residential building into a communal residential building, such as a care home, if the care home is not intended for use as a hospital or similar institution.
	Under agreements with our European partners, entered into by successive Governments, we are not able to extend existing VAT zero rates or introduce any new ones. While the application of VAT reliefs and reduced rates is also limited by these agreements, all taxes are kept under review and any changes are announced by the Chancellor as part of the Budget process.

Welfare Tax Credits

Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people claimed tax credits in each of the last five years, broken down by occupational group; and what proportion of total claims each group represented.

Stephen Timms: New tax credits were introduced in April 2003 and have just entered their fifth year of operation. Information on the number of people claiming tax credits in 2003-04 and 2004-05 is available on the HMRC website at:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-annual-0405.pdf
	Figures for 2005-06 are due to be published on 22 May. Information on the number of claimants broken down by occupational group is not available.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Afghanistan

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations she has made to the Afghan government on its proposed legislation on immunity from prosecution.

Ian McCartney: We are monitoring the situation closely with our EU and international partners and have agreed a policy of quiet diplomacy over the implementation of the Act itself. We will also be using appropriate opportunities to clearly set out our position on human rights to ensure the Afghan population and government is in no doubt where the EU stands on important human rights matters.
	The amended Act, unlike the original Bill, does not affect the right of victims and their families to bring criminal claims against persons "with respect to individual crimes".

Canada

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when she last met the Canadian high commissioner; and what the subjects of discussion were on that occasion.

Ian McCartney: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary met the Canadian high commissioner informally at the Lord Mayor's Easter banquet reception on 18 April, where they discussed a range of international issues including climate change, recent developments in Canada, UN and Afghanistan.

Chechnya

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions she is having with her Russian counterpart on the latest developments in Chechnya.

Geoff Hoon: The situation in Chechnya, and the wider North Caucasus, remains an issue of importance in our ongoing bilateral and EU discussions with Russia. With EU partners, we last discussed the latest developments in Chechnya with the Russian Government at the EU/Russia Human Rights Consultations on 3 May.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment she has made of the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ian McCartney: The political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has yet to settle since the elections of 2006. A new government and parliamentary institutions are in place, but have yet to tackle meaningfully the multiple challenges which face DRC, particularly ongoing conflict in the east, poverty reduction and security sector reform.
	The needless violence in Kinshasa in March and the lack of space for the political opposition shown by the new government have dented the population's confidence in the democratic process. That confidence must be restored.
	We make clear to the government that there should be sufficient political and legal space in which the opposition can operate, and that freedom of expression should be widened and respected. We are also working closely with DRC parliament to help it fulfil its role of ensuring accountability and respect for constitutional government. I met with a group of Congolese parliamentarians from a cross-section of political parties in March when they visited the UK to see how the opposition works. They learnt about our procedures, systems and financing, in order that they use the ideas to develop their own legislation and procedures.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Politics and Government

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions she has had with her counterpart in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the political situation in that country; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: We have regular discussions with President Kabila and the new Congolese Government regarding the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has not had any recent discussions with the newly appointed Congolese Foreign Minister.
	My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development met President Kabila, Foreign Minister Nyamwisi and Prime Minister Gizenga during his visit to the DRC on 22-24 April. He stressed to them that during this critical time for the DRC they need to strengthen their fledgling democracy, including through tolerance of peaceful political opposition and respect for freedom of expression, and eschew the path of violence.

Diplomatic Service: Security

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when she expects to announce the outcome of the review which is considering options around replacing armed forces' close protection teams protecting diplomatic staff with private sector security companies.

Geoff Hoon: No such review is taking place beyond the normal processes of ensuring that long-term services continue to provide value for money. This applies to all services, including close protection, provided by the Government and the private sector.

Embassies

Brian Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the cost was of running and maintaining the UK embassies in each of the last five years.

Geoff Hoon: The following table outlines the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) total overseas cost over the last five financial years. Total overseas costs consist of salaries, other direct costs, local and central overheads and programme. These totals are therefore "running costs plus". We are not currently able accurately to disaggregate these figures. FCO programme costs include expenditure on the BBC World Service that supports FCO strategic priorities throughout the world.
	The table also includes the FCO's total administrative budgets from the latest FCO departmental report, published May 2007. The current reporting system provides a consolidated figure for UK and overseas administration (running) costs. Copies of the FCO departmental report are available in the Library of the House.
	
		
			  £ 
			  Financial year  Total overseas costs( 1)  Administrative budget for the FCO 
			 2001-02 562,950,417 662,000,000 
			 2002-03 687,751,006 703,000,000 
			 2003-04 697,971,352 706,000,000 
			 2004-05 800,380,982 746,000,000 
			 2005-06 838,487,330 815,000,000 
			 (1) Consists of: salaries; other direct costs, local and central overheads and programme.

Estonia

Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports she has received of recent attacks on Estonian Government websites; and if she will make a statement.

Geoff Hoon: I am aware of recent media reports on cyber attacks on Estonian Government websites. Our embassy in Tallinn has been following the situation closely.

Estonia

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions she has had with her counterpart in Estonia on  (a) the removal of the Bronzed Warrior and  (b) desecration of war graves in Tallinn; and if she will make a statement.

Geoff Hoon: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has not discussed the Bronze Soldier issue with the Estonian Foreign Minister. The relocation of the Bronze Soldier and associated war graves was an internal Estonian issue. We recognise the right of the Estonian Government to relocate war memorials and war graves and we note that this has been done with due sensitivity and respect. Our embassy in Tallinn has been following events closely.

Estonia

Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations she has made to the Russian Government on relations between Russia and Estonia; and if she will make a statement.

Geoff Hoon: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has not made any recent representations to the Russian authorities on Estonia-Russia relations. The Government fully support the EU presidency statement of 2 May and the NATO statement of 3 May following a dispute over the relocating of a war memorial in Tallinn, which expressed grave concern over the safety of the Estonian embassy and its staff in Russia and urged Russia to address the dispute through dialogue. We recognise the right of the Estonian Government to relocate war memorials and war graves and see this as an internal matter for Estonia.

Human Rights Council

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the UK Government's position is on the candidacy of Belarus for the 17 May elections for the UN Human Rights Council.

Margaret Beckett: We continue to have deep concerns at the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus, including Belarus' failure to co-operate with the UN human rights mechanisms; its failure to conduct free and fair elections, including the detention and arrest of political and civil society activists; and persistent reports of harassment and closure of non-governmental organisations, national minority groups, independent media outlets, religious groups, opposition political parties and independent trade unions.
	We do not consider that countries whose human rights situations continue to be of deep concern fulfil the criteria for membership of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).
	The UN General Assembly resolution establishing the HRC in March 2006 sets out clear expectations of the Council's members, including that they "uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights". We fully support these expectations of the Council's members. We urge all members of the General Assembly, responsible for electing the HRC membership, to take candidates' performance against these standards fully into account when casting their votes. European Union member states have publicly committed only to support those states who meet these standards, and who contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 
	(1)  if she will make a statement on progress in the search for Bosnian Serb war-crime suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic;
	(2)  what assessment she has made of  (a) Serbia's and  (b) Montenegro's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the detection and arrest of fugitive indictees Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

Ian McCartney: The chief responsibility for the detention and arrest of fugitive indictees Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic rests with the Governments of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their progress in this regard is assessed by Carla Del Ponte, the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
	The Chief Prosecutor's most recent assessment, delivered to the UN Security Council on 15 December 2006, was that Serbia's and Bosnia-Herzegovina's co-operation with the ICTY was not satisfactory but that there were no significant problems with Montenegro's co-operation. We are a strong supporter of the ICTY and continue to make clear to countries of the region their obligation to co-operate fully with the Tribunal as emphasised in UN Security Council Resolution 1534. In February, my right. hon. Friend the Minister for Europe delivered this message in Belgrade to the President and Prime Minister of Serbia.

Iran: Human Rights

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent reports she has received on  (a) the situation of the Baha'i community,  (b) the treatment of Bihnam Saltanat Akhdari and Shah Baygum Diqhani,  (c) the treatment of Baha'i children in educational establishments,  (d) the treatment of the family home of Mr. Dhabihu'llah Mahrami following his death and  (e) the media treatment of the Baha'i faith in Iran; and if she will make a statement.

Kim Howells: We remain concerned about the treatment of the Baha'i community in Iran; Iranian Baha'is continue to face discrimination and intimidation. We receive regular updates on their situation from the National Assembly of the Baha'is of the United Kingdom.
	Recent reports about the murder of two elderly Baha'i women, Bihnam Saltanat Akhdari and Shah Baygum Diqhani, and the persecution of Baha'i school children are particularly worrying. We are currently trying to find out more information about this and we will take further action as appropriate. We understand that Mr. Dhabihu'llah Mahrami died in custody on 15 December 2005. Mr. Mahrami's case had previously appeared on the EU list of cases of concern used in the EU-Iran Human Rights Dialogue. The EU raised the death of Mr. Mahrami in a meeting with the Iranian authorities on 31 January 2006 and handed over a note verbale requesting further information. We have not received specific reports about the treatment of the family home since his death, but would be prepared to consider further action as appropriate. We are also concerned about reports that Iranian newspapers, including hardline  Keyhan, have been carrying out a propaganda campaign against the Baha'i community. We raised our concerns about this in an EU démarche last year.
	The Government continues to press the Iranian authorities to take seriously their international human rights obligations, uphold the right to freedom of religion and belief, as described in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and address the discrimination suffered by Iranian Baha'is. We were pleased that all EU countries co-sponsored a resolution about the human rights situation in Iran at the UN General Assembly in December last year which expressed serious concern at
	"the disregard of property rights, including through de facto expropriation as noted in the report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing"
	and
	"the escalation and increased frequency of discrimination and other human rights violations against members of the Baha'i Faith".

Iraq

John Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to her oral answer of 1 May 2007,  Official Report, columns 1360-1, on Iraq, where in their evidence sessions  (a) John Scarlett and  (b) John Williams referred to the draft dossier of 9 September 2002; and whether the draft dossier was seen by Lord Hutton.

Margaret Beckett: During oral questions on 1 May 2007,  Official Report, columns 1360-1, reference was made to both the dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and a draft compiled by John Williams. In oral evidence to the Hutton inquiry, John Scarlett made reference to the Williams' draft 26 August 2003,  Official Report, column 59; John Williams gave evidence on his role in the drafting of the published dossier 14 August 2003,  Official Report, columns 189-90. I refer the hon. Member to the transcripts available on the Hutton inquiry website
	www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk
	During his inquiry, Lord Hutton had access to all documents he wished to see. There is no question of the existence of the Williams' draft being hidden from the inquiry.

Iraq: Administration of Justice

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will make representations to the Iraqi authorities on the implications for human rights of court proceedings to review sentences handed down which can impose the death penalty on an offender originally sentenced to a custodial sentence.

Ian McCartney: All criminal defendants in Iraq can choose to appeal their sentences. A separate panel of judges will then review their case and any relevant submissions made by the defence counsel. Under Iraqi law the appeal court may conclude that a more severe sentence is appropriate and impose the death penalty in cases where this sentence is available.
	The United Kingdom is firmly against the use of the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstance. Since the Iraqi Interim Government re-introduced the death penalty with effect from 7 August 2004, we have regularly pressed our policy of opposition to the death penalty in all cases and circumstances at the highest level, including with the Iraqi President and Prime Minister.

Iraq: Christianity

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations she has made to the Iraqi Government on the treatment of Christians in that country; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: We continue to press the Government of Iraq to improve security for all Iraqis, including Christians, in our regular contacts with them. We also remain in regular touch with representatives of Iraq's Christian communities in Iraq and the UK. We are deeply concerned about ongoing violence and the impact it is having on Iraq's Christians and other communities.

Iraq: Peace Keeping Operations

George Galloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment she has made of standards of policing in Basra; and if she will make a statement.

Kim Howells: Assessments have been made of the capability of Iraqi police stations and units in Basra, using criteria agreed with the Government of Iraq and the multi-national force. Judged by these criteria, over 80 per cent. of police stations in Basra city are assessed as being largely or fully capable of carrying out their essential duties.
	However, the Basra police continues to face significant challenges, particularly in the areas of serious corruption, militia infiltration and leadership. It will be vital for the Iraqis to address these problems in order to create a secure environment for the local population, and the Government are providing advice to help them in this task. The Serious Crimes Unit of the Basra police was widely associated with violent corruption, and was disbanded in December 2006. A functioning Iraqi Department of Internal Affairs, reporting directly to the central government, has been established to investigate, arrest and prosecute corrupt police officers. The UK is supporting the work of this unit directly. In addition, UK police mentors are actively engaged in building the leadership and specialist skills of the Basra police.

Iraq: Religious Freedom

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate she has made of the numbers of Christians  (a) killed,  (b) displaced and  (c) otherwise persecuted in Iraq since the invasion of that country.

Kim Howells: Maintaining such records is a matter for the Government of Iraq. While there are no comprehensive or reliable figures available on the number of Christians killed, displaced or persecuted since 2003, the International Organisation for Migration estimates that 7 per cent. to 8 per cent. of people internally displaced in Iraq in 2006 were Christians.
	We remain deeply concerned about the impact of violence on all Iraqis. We continue to press the Government of Iraq to improve security and support international efforts to care for those affected by violence. Since the beginning of 2007 we have allocated £10 million for the humanitarian effort co-ordinated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and International Committee of the Red Cross.

Kosovo

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when she expects the Kosovo final status process to be concluded; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: The UN Special Envoy submitted his final settlement proposals to the UN Security Council on 26 March. We believe the Council should quickly follow up on these proposals with a resolution that would pave the way for their implementation. We are currently negotiating with our Security Council partners in New York to that end.
	My right. Hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary will keep the House appraised of developments.

Members: Correspondence

John Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when she will reply to the letter dated 1 May 2007 from the hon. Member for Billericay on the subject of the oral answer of 1 May 2007,  Official Report, columns 1360-1, on Iraq.

Margaret Beckett: I replied to the hon. Member's parliamentary question (UIN 136509) today. A reply to his letter will follow shortly.

Pakistan: Peace Negotiations

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of how the 2006 agreement between Pakistan and militants in North Waziristan is working; and if she will make a statement.

Kim Howells: We continue to receive reports of Taliban influence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. We share Pakistan's concern about this. We continue to monitor the results of the peace agreement signed in September 2006 with tribal elders in North Waziristan Agency and its effect on the likely number of Taliban and pro-Taliban fighters crossing and re-crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the region of North Waziristan.

Papua: Politics and Government

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions she has had with the Indonesian Government on special autonomy status for Papua and West Papua.

Ian McCartney: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has not made representations to the Government of Indonesia about Papua. However, our embassy in Jakarta regularly discusses Papua with the Indonesian authorities. During his visit to Indonesia in March 2006, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister expressed the UK's support for dialogue between the central Government and representatives of the Papuan people. We believe that full implementation of existing special autonomy legislation is the best way to proceed towards a peaceful, stable and prosperous Papua province.

Russia: Diplomatic Relations

Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the Russian Government's adherence to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations; and if she will make a statement.

Geoff Hoon: The Government urge Russia, and all states, to uphold the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We have been deeply concerned about the threat to the Estonian embassy in Moscow following a dispute over the relocation of a war memorial in Tallinn. We therefore fully support the EU presidency statement of 2 May and the NATO statement of 3 May which expressed grave concern over the safety of the Estonian embassy and its staff in Russia, asked Russia to respect the Vienna Convention and urged Russia to address the dispute through dialogue.

Somalia: Politics and Government

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions she has had with her  (a) US and  (b) Ethiopian counterparts regarding the security situation in Somalia; and if she will make a statement.

Margaret Beckett: We are in constant contact with our Ethiopian and US counterparts on the situation in Somalia.
	We, along with our Ethiopian and US counterparts, agree that there is a real chance for the Somali people to reach a sustainable political solution for Somalia, based on the transitional federal charter; that there is an urgent need to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1744; and that we should urge and support the transitional federal institutions and Government of Somalia in their efforts to lead an inclusive and representative political process in Somalia and to become an effective governing authority.

Somalia: Politics and Government

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports she has received on the number of Ethiopian troops operating in Somalia; and if she will make a statement.

Margaret Beckett: There are widely varying reports of the number of Ethiopian troops operating in Somalia. We do not know the exact figure as we have no presence in Somalia and we are not aware of Ethiopia confirming the numbers it has in Somalia. However, our best estimate at this stage is that there are likely to be around 4,000.
	However, the Ethiopian action in Somalia has resulted in the Transitional Federal Government, the only mechanism through which to restore peace, stability and governance to Somalia, re-establishing itself in Mogadishu and securing authority over the rest of south and central Somalia.
	We want Ethiopian troops to withdraw as soon as they can, as Ethiopia has said it wants to. The deployment of the African Union stabilisation force, authorised by UN Security Council Resolution 1744, will help create the conditions for this withdrawal to take place. This is an important step in maintaining security and preventing a return to civil war.

Somalia: Politics and Government

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the Islamic Courts' influence and capability in Somalia; and if she will make a statement.

Margaret Beckett: The Union of Islamic Courts ceased to exist as an organisation after its collapse in December 2006.
	The Government calls on all parties in Somalia to reject violence and commit to peaceful dialogue. The National Reconciliation Congress, which we want the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to convene as soon as possible, should offer the right platform for this.

Sudan: Terrorism

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions she has had with the US authorities on the State Department report's description of the Sudanese regime as a strong partner in the war on terror.

Kim Howells: The US State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism (2006) reflect the current views of the US government. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has not discussed the Sudan section, or indeed any other section of this report, with the US government. The current situation in Darfur remains the focus of UK/US discussions on Sudan.

Written Questions

John Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when she expects to reply to question 136509, on Iraq, tabled by the hon. Member for Billericay on 3 May 2007.

Margaret Beckett: I replied to the hon. Member today (UIN 136509).

Zimbabwe: New Partnership for Africa's Development

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the peer-review mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development has been applied to Zimbabwe; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: The New Partnership for Africa's Development Peer Review Mechanism is a voluntary process. Zimbabwe has not yet volunteered itself for review.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Community Development: Stoke-on-Trent

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding has been provided for the Supporting People programme in Stoke-on-Trent in the last 12 months; and what funding will be provided in the next 12 months.

Phil Woolas: In 2006-07 Stoke-on-Trent received a £5,097,375 Supporting People programme grant. In 2007-08 this allocation was increased by 7.5 per cent. giving a grant of £5,479,678. Stoke-on-Trent also received a £330,816 Supporting People administration grant in 2006-07 and have been allocated the same amount in 2007-08 as a contribution towards the costs of running this programme. Communities and Local Government, as with most other departments across Whitehall, are currently in negotiation with Treasury regarding the future allocation of resources over the next spending review period. I am therefore unable to say, at this stage, what the Supporting People allocation will be for any local authority beyond 2008. However, both Communities and Local Government and Treasury attach a great deal of importance to this programme and will continue to support investment in supported housing.

Community Development: Stoke-on-Trent

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of levels of deprivation in Stoke-on-Trent; and what funding she is making available to the Supporting People programme in response to this.

Phil Woolas: As a result of the use of the Supporting People distribution formula in 2007-08 Stoke-on-Trent received a 7.5 per cent. increase in their Supporting People grant allocation.
	The Supporting People distribution formula was used to inform the Supporting People allocations in 2007-08. Components of the index of multiple deprivation are used in the Supporting People distribution formula.
	The index of multiple deprivation measures deprivation around the country. Stoke-on-Trent is ranked 18th (out of 354) on the rank of average score. This measure provides one indication of the level of deprivation within the local authority and takes on board both the most deprived and least deprived small areas within the locality to arrive at the average.

Departments: Information and Communications Technology

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the  (a) originally estimated,  (b) most recently estimated and  (c) outturn cost was of each of the five largest information technology contracts agreed by her Department with outside suppliers in the last five years, as referred to in the answer of 29 June 2006,  Official Report, columns 589-90W, on Information Technology.

Angela Smith: The latest figures on the five largest information technology contracts as referred to in the answer of 29 June 2006,  Official Report, columns 589-90W, are as follows.
	 1. Contract for: Data Network Management and Support Services
	 (a) Original Estimate: £28 million
	 (b) Recent Estimate: £28 million
	 (c) Outturn cost: Not applicable contract completes in 2011
	 2. Contract for: GASPS 3 (Logasnet)—Grants Authorisation System
	 (a) Original Estimate: £3.018 million (To deliver system)
	 (b) Recent Estimate: £3.018 million (To deliver system)
	 (c) Outturn cost: £2.516 million (System delivered. But full outturn costs, which will include annual support and hosting charges, not applicable as contract completes in 2009)
	 3. Contract for: Supporting People Local Interim System
	 (a) Original Estimate: £3.6 million
	 (b) Recent Estimate: £4.6 million Contract Complete
	 (c) Outturn cost: £4.6 million
	 4. Contract for: Maps on Tap Project
	 (a) Original Estimate: £2.42 million
	 (b) Recent Estimate: £2.4 million
	 (c) Outturn cost: Framework contract ends in 2008.
	 5. Contract for: Transactional ERDF and State Aid system (TESA)
	 (a) Original Estimate: £1.5 million
	 (b) Recent Estimate: £1.43 million
	 (c) Outturn cost: not applicable as Contract ends in June 2007

Departments: Internet

Theresa May: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for which Government websites she is responsible; how many visitors each received in the latest period for which figures are available; and what the cost  (a) was of establishing and  (b) has been of maintaining each site.

Angela Smith: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Wealden (Charles Hendry) on 4 July 2006,  Official Report, column 958W, for the list of websites under the Department's responsibility, and the annual running costs of those sites. I further refer the right hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 18 July 2006,  Official Report, column 306W, for the numbers of visitors to the Department's sites in 2005-06.

Departments: Intimidation

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many complaints of bullying have been investigated in her Department in the last 12 months; and how many complaints have been upheld.

Angela Smith: During the last 12 months (for the period April 2006 to March 2007), one formal complaint of bullying was made and investigated by Communities and Local Government and its predecessor, the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister. We are not able to disclose whether or not it was upheld because of our confidentiality obligations.
	Communities and Local Government has a policy of zero tolerance of discrimination, bullying and harassment on any grounds.

Electoral Register: Chorley

Lindsay Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the accuracy of electoral registration for the Clayton-le-Woods North ward of Chorley borough.

Bridget Prentice: I have been asked to reply.
	We are not able to make such an assessment.
	However, the Electoral Administration Act 2006 introduced a number of new provisions to ensure that electoral registers are now more accurate than ever before. These have included:
	Imposing a new duty on Electoral Registration Officers to take all necessary steps to ensure a comprehensive and accurate register;
	Increasing the time available for electoral registration to 11 days prior to polling day
	Introducing performance standards for electoral services.
	The Government are currently considering the effectiveness of the new measures and are keeping this area under review to identify initiatives that will further maintain the accuracy of the electoral register.

Electromagnetic Fields: Health Hazards

Howard Stoate: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the recently-published Stakeholder Advisory Group on Extremely Low Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields report on precautionary measures to protect the public against exposure to extremely low frequency electric and magnetic fields; and if she will make a statement.

Meg Munn: The Department notes the publication of the report by the Stakeholder Advisory Group on Extremely Low Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields and acknowledges the hard work that has gone into its production. The Government will need time to consider the implications of the report's conclusions and recommendations.

Home Information Packs

Peter Atkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will take steps to ensure that local authorities make available  (a) building inspectors' reports and  (b) other relevant information for which they are responsible to providers of home information packs.

Angela Smith: Information on building regulations approvals, completion certificates and work carried out under competent person self-certification schemes is not currently required to be held by local authorities on a statutory public register. Communities and Local Government is currently consulting on proposals that would make this publicly available by October 2007.
	We are working with the local government and private search sectors to improve access to local authority held data. For example, a consultation paper, 'Delivering Property Searches: Good Practice Guidance for Local Authorities and Personal Searchers', was published on 1 May.

Home Information Packs

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will consider delaying the starting date for the home information packs to 1 June 2007.

Yvette Cooper: The launch date for home information packs is 1 June 2007.

Home Information Packs

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether it will be possible to sell a house privately without a home information pack being prepared.

Yvette Cooper: A Home Information Pack (HIP) is required where a residential property is marketed for sale to the public or a section of the public with vacant possession, other than for some exceptions set out in Part 6 of the Home Information Pack Regulations 2007.

Home Information Packs

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance she has issued on the qualifications necessary to prepare the non-environmental sections of a home information pack.

Yvette Cooper: The Home Information Pack Regulations 2007 and the accompanying procedural guidance describe the documents that must be included in the pack and, where appropriate, the persons who may prepare those documents and the terms upon which they are prepared.

Home Information Packs

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she plans to bring forward delegated legislation setting out the responsibilities of  (a) home owners,  (b) relevant professionals and  (c) prospective home buyers in relation to home information packs.

Yvette Cooper: The Housing Act 2004 and the Home Information Pack Regulations 2007 set out the responsibilities of home owners and the relevant professionals in relation to home information packs. Prospective home buyers will benefit from the provision of information upfront, but will not have any legal responsibilities under the HIP legislation.

Home Information Packs

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance she has issued on the acceptability of searches performed by  (a) home owners and  (b) other non-solicitors for the purposes of a home information pack.

Yvette Cooper: The Home Information Pack Regulations 2007 describe the content of searches that must be included in the pack and the terms upon which they are prepared. The accompanying procedural guidance was issued by the Department on 9 May. This provides further guidance on the requirements relating to searches.

Oil Firing Technical Association

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans she has to undertake a review of the Oil Fired Technical Association self-certification scheme; and if she will make a statement.

Angela Smith: The Oil Firing Technical Association (OFTEC) operates competent person self-certification schemes authorised under the Building Act 1984. It is only this part of OFTEC's activities that Communities and Local Government has powers to review.
	There are currently no plans for specific review of the OFTEC schemes. However, we are currently reviewing the conditions of authorisation of all competent person schemes. As part of that review we are considering the scope for requiring schemes to achieve United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation against the conditions of authorisation. UKAS would then periodically review all schemes on the Department's behalf.

Shropshire County Council

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how her Department is engaging with stakeholders on the unitary bid made by Shropshire county council.

Phil Woolas: As set out in the consultation document "Proposals for Future Unitary Structures: Stakeholder Consultation", which was published on 27 March, we are seeking views from key partners and stakeholders that have an interest in the areas affected by the proposals. However, it is open to anyone to respond to the consultation document and we will carefully consider all comments and representations, together with any other information that we may receive, before decisions are made.
	Communities and Local Government Ministers and officials are also prepared to meet with representatives from affected principal councils as part of the consultation process.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Animal Experiments: Licensing

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many project licences he issued under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in  (a) 2005 and  (b) 2006; and how many abstracts his Department has published relating to these project licences;
	(2)  how many project licences authorising procedures on non-human primates he issued in  (a) 2005 and  (b) 2006; and how many abstracts his Department has published relating to these project licences.

Joan Ryan: The details sought are in the table.
	It should be noted that the publication of project licence abstracts was phased in during 2005 following the introduction of a revised project licence application form. The revised form makes provision for applicants to submit abstracts of their proposed programmes of work on a voluntary basis for publication after granting of the licence. Because of the phasing in of the new system, not all applicants for project licences granted in 2005 would have used the revised application form or had an opportunity to provide an abstract.
	
		
			   2005  2006 
			 Projects granted 528 524 
			 Abstracts published 213 411 
			 Projects authorising the use of primates 22 6 
			 Abstracts published relating to the use of primates 4 3

Asylum Seekers

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children of asylum seekers have been taken into care in each of the last six years.

Parmjit Dhanda: Information on the number of children of asylum seekers who have been taken into care is not collected centrally.

Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide

Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 1 May 2007,  Official Report, column 1576W, on corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide, if he will list the  (a) stakeholders and  (b) other correspondents from whom he has received representations on the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill since it was published.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	As the Minister responsible for the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill I, as well as the department, have had contact with a number of individuals and organisations in relation to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill since it was published, many of whom are listed among those who responded to the joint Home Affairs and Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into the draft Bill (a copy of all the evidence given is available in the Library).
	We do not have a definitive list of those who have contacted us since the publication of the Bill but it would include trade unions, industry groups, law firms, individuals and Members of both Houses.

Courts: Nottingham

Graham Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 16 April 2007,  Official Report, columns 6-7W, on courts: Nottingham, when he expects the assessment of the impact of powers under section 178 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to be completed.

Harriet Harman: I have been asked to reply.
	The assessment of the impact of powers under section 178 is due to be completed this month with a view to the affirmative order extending section 178 to the 11 new community justice courts being laid before Parliament and debated before the summer recess.

Crime: Anti-social Behaviour

Brian Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of his Department's use of targets on levels of crime and antisocial behaviour; and if he will make a statement.

Vernon Coaker: In 2004 the Home Office agreed a Public Service Agreement (PSA) in which a national target for crime reduction for the 2004 spending review period was set out. The Home Office cascaded this target to local areas by negotiating individual crime reduction targets with every Crime and Disorder Partnership (Community Safety Partnerships in Wales), and, since these targets were established, practitioners both locally and nationally have been working towards their delivery.
	During the spending review period to date, crime has fallen by 10 per cent. compared to the 2002-03 baseline, as measured by the British Crime Survey to the end of December 2006. A similar national target was established for antisocial behaviour; perceptions of antisocial behaviour have fallen from 21 per cent. to 18 per cent. since 2002-3.
	The current set of PSAs are in their final year: from April 2008 it is proposed that a new set of Government PSAs will come into operation. As part of the process for establishing the successor to the existing crime reduction target, the Home Office is reviewing the impact of the targets that have gone before and what the most appropriate targets will be going forward.

Ian Huntley

Dominic Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Lord Chancellor's recently stated opinion on the minimum period that Ian Huntley should spend in prison is Government policy; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	No. The Government do not have a policy on this matter, which is for the courts and the Parole Board. Until December 2003 Ministers were responsible for setting tariffs for mandatory life sentences but since then this responsibility has passed to the courts.
	Once the minimum term has been served an offender is entitled to have his detention reviewed by the independent Parole Board. No life sentence prisoner can expect to be released unless and until the Parole Board is satisfied that continued detention is no longer necessary for the protection of the public.
	Ian Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years for the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and his suitability for release will be considered by the Parole Board on completion of the minimum term. However, when setting the minimum term the judge said his order for a minimum of 40 years to be served "offers little or no hope of the defendant's eventual release".

Identity Cards

Edward Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he plans to publish his six monthly report to Parliament on the costs of the identity cards scheme.

Joan Ryan: The latest identity cards scheme cost report was published on 10 May 2007.

Lie Detectors: Jeremy Bamber

George Galloway: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the implications for his detention of the passing of a polygraph test by life prisoner Jeremy Bamber; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	There is no impact upon Mr. Bamber's custody as a result of his recent polygraph test. He remains a life sentence prisoner with a whole life tariff. This means that he is not eligible for a Parole Board review to consider his release.
	Mr. Bamber may if he wishes make a further application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is the independent non-departmental body established to review alleged miscarriages of justice and they will consider any application made and decide whether a case should be referred to the appeal court. It is only the appeal court that can quash a conviction.

Offensive Weapons: Cambridgeshire

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were recorded involving knives in the Cambridgeshire constabulary area in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Vernon Coaker: From the information collected on recorded crime, it is not possible to identify those offences which are knife related. Such offences are not specifically defined by statute and details of the individual circumstances of offences do not feature in the recorded crime statistics.
	Figures are collected for homicides involving the use of sharp instruments but they do not separate knife-related offences. As from April 2007, police forces will provide data on knife-enabled grievous bodily harm and robbery offences.

Open Prisons: Prisoner Escapes

Edward Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have absconded from open prisons since November 2006.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	The information requested is set out in the following table and covers the period from 1 December 2006 to 31 March 2007. There have been 167 absconds from all open prisons, in England and Wales, during this period. Figures for 2006-07 are provisional and subject to validation.
	
		
			  Absconds from all open prisons, in England and Wales,  1  December 2006 to 31 March 2007 
			  Month  Number of absconds 
			 December 2006 43 
			 January 2007 30 
			 February 42 
			 March 52 
			 Total 167

Prison Service: Compensation

Edward Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons the special payments made by the Prison Service increased from £9,196,000 in 2004-05 to £16,589,000 in 2005-06; and if he will provide a breakdown of such payments by main category of expenditure.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	The increase in the special payments in 2005-06 as against 2004-05 resulted from a doubling of the number of claims that were settled in excess of £100,000 and the inclusion of one claim where the settlement was £2,700,000. The average value of the settlement of smaller claims (under £10,000) also increased from just under £860 to £1,600.

Prison Service: Working Hours

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Prison Service expects to end the use of the Contract Supplementary Hours scheme; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	There are no plans to end the Contact Supplementary Hours (CSH) scheme. While the Service remains committed to filling all funded posts, the time delays involved in between recruitment and delivery to a fully trained officer is considerable (usually six months). Often this delay is inconsistent with a short term operational need, such as the requirement to open new accommodation, in response to a sudden rise in the prison population or the need to re-role an establishment at short notice. Accordingly CSH has become an essential tool to maintain the operational capability of the Service, being essential to filling staff vacancies prior to recruitment. Participation on the scheme by individual staff members is entirely voluntary.

Prisoner Escapes

Edward Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many escaped and absconded prisoners remain at large; and on what date each such prisoner originally escaped custody.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	The numbers of escapes and absconds from prisons is at its lowest level in the last 10 years, despite an increasing population. While the Prison Service holds accurate records of prisoners who escape and abscond, it does not hold central data on recaptures and the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Work is currently under way to develop this capability.

Prisons

Patrick McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners absconded from Sudbury prison in each month since 1 January; what category of offences had been committed by each of these prisoners; what the term of the prison sentence was in each case; on what date each absconded; and whether the prisoner remains at large in each case.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply
	:
	The information requested is set out in the following table and covers the period from 1 January 2006 to 31 March 2007. There were 92 absconds during this period.
	Information on whether a prisoner is unlawfully at large can be inaccurate as it is reliant on the police notifying the Prison Service and the open prison being notified of the recapture. It is also possible for a prisoner to return to prison under another name.
	
		
			  The number of absconds from Sudbury (from 1 January 2006 to  31 March 2007) 
			  Month  Number of absconds 
			 January 2006 5 
			 February 5 
			 March 4 
			 April 9 
			 May 7 
			 June 11 
			 July 8 
			 August 8 
			 September 7 
			 October 12 
			 November 5 
			 December 5 
			 January 2007 4 
			 February 1 
			 March 1 
			 Total 92

Schools: Crime

Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many school pupils were arrested on school grounds in each year since 1997, broken down by offence;
	(2)  how many school children were arrested during school hours in the last year for which figures are available.

Vernon Coaker: Information on arrests held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform provides the number of persons arrested for recorded crime (notifiable offences), by age group, gender, ethnicity and main offence group within the 43 police force areas in England and Wales. Information is not collected centrally on the circumstances of the arrests.

Sentencing

Nicholas Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of lifer programmes in dealing with prisoners on an indefinite sentence of public protection with a short minimum term;
	(2)  how many and what percentage of prisoners on an indefinite sentence of public protection are part of a lifer programme; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	HMPS offers a range of Accredited Programmes for Offenders based on their specific behavioural needs. Access to such programmes is not based on an individual's sentence or their status as a 'lifer'. There are no specific accredited offending behaviour programmes targeted directly and solely at 'lifers' or labelled as 'lifer programmes.'
	Each individual currently serving an indeterminate sentence of Public protection will, at some stage of their sentence, have access to some or all of these behavioural courses. Of the 8,300 completions of accredited offending behaviour programmes (excluding therapeutic communities and drug programmes,) in custody in 2006-07, approximately 320 were by prisoners serving indeterminate sentences of public protection.

Theft: Dogs

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many dogs were reported as stolen in each police force area in England and Wales in  (a) each of the last 12 months and  (b) each of the previous three years, broken down by breed; how many of these dogs were recovered; how many people were prosecuted for the crime in the same period; and what sentence was imposed in each case where no legal proceedings are outstanding.

Vernon Coaker: From the information collected on recorded crime, it is not possible to separately identify those offences where a dog is stolen. Such offences are not specifically defined by statute and they would be included within the 'other theft' offence classification. Similarly information is not available for prosecutions and sentencing.

Vetting

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applicants for Criminal Records Bureau clearance checks for working with children there were in the last year for which figures are available; and how many of these applications were paid for by  (a) the public purse and  (b) individuals.

Joan Ryan: For positions which involve working with children, the Criminal Records Bureau's (CRB) Standard and Enhanced Disclosures will include a check against the Protection of Children Act list (POCA), where this is specifically requested by the employer or the registered body on the application form. In financial year 2006-07, the last period for which figures are available, there were 2,554,970 disclosures issued where a check against the POCA list had been requested.
	It is for an employer to decide whether or not to bear the cost of a disclosure or to pass the cost on to an applicant. I am unable to confirm how many applications were paid for by the public purse or by the applicants themselves because such data are not collated by the CRB. Disclosures are processed free of charge for those who apply for voluntary positions.

Young Offender Institutions: Compensation

Phil Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many claims for compensation by inmates have been made against each HM young offender institution in England and Wales in each year from 2001-02 to 2006-07; how many have been successful; what amount of compensation was paid for each claim; and what the total cost was to the public purse.

Gerry Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.
	The following table is based on figures collated centrally and indicates the number of prisoner claims received at those public sector establishments holding only young offenders (18-21) between 2004-05 and 2006-07. For establishments holding a mix of YOs and juveniles, or YOs and adults it is not possible to separate out those claims made by YOs. The table also shows the number of successful claims during the same period and the amounts of compensation paid. Figures prior to 2004-05 were not recorded centrally.
	The total cost to the public purse in dealing with young offender litigation can be obtained only at disproportionate costs.
	Each case is dealt with on its own merits and any remedial action that is identified to minimise further successful claims is, where appropriate, implemented.
	
		
			   2004-05  2005-06 
			  Establishment  Received claims  Successful claims  Compensation  Paid  Received claims  Successful claims  Compensation paid 
			 Aylesbury 0 0 0 0 0 0 
			 Deerbolt 3 1 300 3 1 500 
			 Glen Parva 1 1 97,500 3 0 0 
			 Northallerton 2 0 0 1 1 575,000 
			 Portland 3 0 0 4 0 0 
			 Reading 0 0 0 1 0 0 
			 Rochester 1 0 0 3 1 3,000 
			 Total 10 2 97,800 15 3 578,500 
		
	
	
		
			   2006-07 
			  Establishment  Received  c laims  Successful claims  Compensation paid 
			 Aylesbury 0 0 0 
			 Deerbolt 1 1 2,500 
			 Glen Parva 1 0 0 
			 Northallerton 1 2 7,614 
			 Portland 2 2 31,250 
			 Reading 0 1 2,100 
			 Rochester 0 1 2,250 
			 Total 5 7 45,714 
			  Note: Litigation claims can take several years to complete. Therefore the number settled each may differ to the number received in the same period.

HEALTH

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many local partnerships are involved in the Screening and Intervention Programme for Sensible Drinking trailblazers scheme.

Caroline Flint: There will be at least nine local partnerships involved in the Identification and Brief Advice Trailblazer Programme; four in the North East and five in London and the South East. Additional partnerships may be involved because a primary care site or criminal justice site may be recruited from a neighbouring partnership area.

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  whether primary care trusts which do not spend the money allocated for the Screening and Intervention Programme for Sensible Drinking on the programme itself will receive the same money for alcohol work the following year;
	(2)  whether the budget allocated to primary care trusts for the Screening and Intervention Programme for Sensible Drinking will be ring-fenced.

Caroline Flint: The Department has commissioned an Interventions and Brief Advice Trailblazer programme. A consortium, headed by St. George's Medical School and Newcastle university, is establishing a series of Interventions and Brief Advice demonstration projects in primary care and other health care settings, including accident and emergency, as well as criminal justice settings. This is an action research initiative, which is centrally funded. Payments are made in line with contracts made between the Department, the Consortium and with the individual providers. The funds are entirely separate from primary care trust allocations.

Ambulance Services

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of emergency calls the Ambulance Service responded to within eight minutes in  (a) rural and  (b) non-rural areas in the latest period for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement.

Andy Burnham: Details of category A (immediately life threatening) calls received in England during 2005-06, and details of those answered within eight minutes—split between rural and urban services—are shown in the following table:
	
		
			   Total category A calls  Response within 8 minutes  Response within 8 minutes ( Percentage ) 
			 England 1,641,230 1,235,769 75.3 
			  Of which:
			 Rural services 855,612 651,812 76.2 
			 Urban Services 785,618 583,957 74.3 
		
	
	Individual calls are not categorised as rural or urban. Until 1 April 2006, individual national health service ambulance trusts were classified as urban or rural. Details of which ambulance trust fell into which category can be found in the NHS publication "Ambulance Services, England: 2005-06", which is available in the Library.
	Audit findings have found reporting inconsistencies in some ambulance services, which means that the 75.3 per cent. figure for category A calls responded to within eight minutes ought to be treated with some caution, particularly when being used to compare performances against those in previous years. Again, more details can be found in "Ambulance Services, England: 2005-06".
	"Ambulance Services, England, 2006-07" is due to be released in June 2007.

Ambulance Services

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many Ambulance Service stations  (a) closed and  (b) opened in (i) rural and (ii) non-rural areas in each year since 1997; and if she will make a statement.

Andy Burnham: The information is not held centrally. The location and number of ambulance stations is a matter for individual national health service ambulance trusts to determine.

Arthritis: Drugs

Janet Dean: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the evidential basis is for the statement made in the Musculoskeletal Service Framework that the year-on-year costs of TNF alpha inhibitors are likely to be offset by keeping patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at work and reducing the need for them to claim incapacity benefits; what research her Department has funded on this topic; and what steps her Department is taking to enable people with RA  (a) to remain in and  (b) to return to work;
	(2)  what steps she has taken to ensure that the clinical assessment treatment services envisaged by the Musculoskeletal Service Framework include expertise in rheumatology to enable patients with rheumatoid arthritis to be diagnosed at the earliest opportunity.

Ivan Lewis: The evidence for the statement is contained in the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) report "The use of modelling to evaluate new drugs for patients with a chronic condition: the case of antibodies against tumour necrosis factor in rheumatoid arthritis". A copy has been placed in the Library.
	The National Co-ordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment co-ordinates the HTA programme under contract from the Department.
	The musculoskeletal services framework aims to enable people with rheumatoid arthritis to remain in, or return to, work by managing patient flows through primary and secondary care, shortening waiting times, and providing patients with better information to manage their condition.
	It is the responsibility of local health bodies to ensure that the multidisciplinary clinical assessment treatment services contain the most appropriate mix of health professionals, including specialists in rheumatology.

Assaults on Staff

John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the causes of physical assaults on hospital staff; and how many have been attributed to  (a) drugs and  (b) aggravated frustration with administrative procedures.

Rosie Winterton: In April 2003 the National Health Service Security Management Service (NHS SMS) was created and assumed responsibility for the issue of tackling violence against NHS staff.
	The NHS SMS has assessed research into the causes of violence, in particular the Royal College of Psychiatrists National Audit of Violence 2003-05.
	This research has contributed to the development and provision of guidance for the NHS and the development of conflict resolution training packages for all NHS front line staff, with specific packages being developed for the ambulance and mental health and learning disability environments.
	Figures on the amount of physical assaults on NHS hospital staff attributed to drugs or aggravated frustration with administrative procedures are not collated centrally.

Asthma: Admissions

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the standardised admission rate to hospitals for asthma was for each primary care trust in England in 2005.

Ivan Lewis: Information on the standardised admission rate for asthma for 2005 is not held centrally.

Asthma: East of England

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many community-based specialists in the care of patients with asthma there are in the East of England strategic health authority area; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: The information requested is not held centrally. It is for local NHS organisations to ensure that they have sufficient suitably qualified staff to deliver services to meet the needs of the communities that they serve.

Asthma: Peterborough

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many asthma patients in the Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust area have  (a) a written personal asthma action plan and  (b) a care plan; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: The information requested is not held centrally.

Blood

Jennifer Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what representations her Department received prior to 1990 from the World Health Organisation on the safety of imported blood from areas with a high prevalence of hepatitis; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  what advice her Department received between 1977 and 1989 from the World Health Organisation on the safety of imported blood from the US; and if she will make a statement.

Caroline Flint: We are not aware of advice received from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the safety of imported blood. The Department of Health and Social Security at the time supported the WHO policy that each country should be able to supply its own blood and blood products. Further information about the policy to be self sufficient in blood products is contained in the report, "Self-Sufficiency in Blood Products in England and Wales". A copy has been placed in the Library.
	In 1975 a WHO resolution made a number of recommendations in relation to blood safety (resolution 28.72).

Carers: Finance

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received on ring-fencing funding for the carers' grant; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: I have received representations from councils, voluntary sector organisations and individual carers regarding the ring-fencing of the carers grant.
	The carers grant is one of several grants which have had their ring-fencing removed. This is part of an overall Government initiative to give councils flexibility to focus resources on key targets. Local government have requested these freedoms for some time.
	Carers are a high priority for Government and we are committed to ensuring they are supported. The grant remains a targeted grant and demonstrates our continued commitment to carers' services. We will continue to provide guidance on the Government's intention for the grant.

Childbirth

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 23 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1190W, on childbirth, in what form her Department holds information on the hospital episode statistics of maternity cases.

Ivan Lewis: The Department has made public the data it has available in "Maternity Statistics—England 2004-05", which was published in 2006 and copies of which are available in the Library.

Conflict Resolution Training

John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of the conflict resolution training provided by her Department has been since inception; and how many staff hours have been spent on such training.

Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collated centrally. The cost of provision of conflict resolution training for front line staff is borne by each national health service health body, individually. The amount of staff hours that have been spent on that training is also determined at a local level.

Dermatology

Ashok Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment her Department has made of the impact of recent trends in the number of secondary care referrals for skin conditions on the training of new consultant dermatologists.

Rosie Winterton: The Department is not responsible for setting curricula for health professional training; that is rightly the responsibility of the statutory and professional bodies. However, we do share a commitment with those bodies that all health professionals are trained so that they have the skills and knowledge to deliver a high quality health service to all groups of the population with whom they deal.

Diabetes

Anthony D Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in  (a) England and  (b) Great Yarmouth were diagnosed with diabetes in each of the last 30 years for which figures are available.

Rosie Winterton: Data on the numbers of people diagnosed with diabetes are not available in the format requested.
	The table shows the number of patients diagnosed with diabetes identified by general practitioner practices in England and Great Yarmouth primary care trust (PCT), 2004-05 (the first year of data from this source) and 2005-06:
	
		
			   2004-05( 1)  2005-06( 2) 
			 England 1,760,000 1,890,000 
			 Great Yarmouth PCT 3,663 3,901 
			 (1) Source: 2004-05 Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) data published by The Information Centre for Health and Social Care This is the first year of data from this source.  (2) Source: 2005-06 QOF data published by The Information Centre for health and social care.   Notes:  1.  Diabetes prevalence The disease register in QOF for diabetes does not include any patient below the age of 17.  2.  Coverage of QOF Patients will contribute to the figures in QOF only if they are registered with a general practice participating in QOF. Not all practices participate in QOF and some participate in some parts only (especially PMS practices who are paid under different arrangements for providing services which are part of QOF for GMS practices).

Doctors: Manpower

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of doctors were employed in  (a) trust grade and  (b) staff grade positions in each of the past five years.

Rosie Winterton: The information requested is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Hospital and community health services (HCHS): medical and dental staff, showing staff grade and all trust grade staff( 1,2)  England at 30 September each year 
			  Number (headcount) and percentage 
			   2002  2003  2004  2005  2006 
			 All staff 77,031 80,851 86,996 90,630 93,320 
			  O f which:  
			 Staff grade 5,255 5,255 5,467 5,527 5,937 
			 Percentage of all doctors 6.8 6.5 6.3 6.1 6.4 
			 Trust grade staff (1,)( )(2) 0 1,266 1,287 3,600 2,591 
			 Percentage of all doctors 0 1.6 1.5 4.0 2.8 
			 (1) This figure is made up of all the Trust Grade staff from the following grades: staff grade, registrar group, senior house officer and house officer. (2 )Historically trust doctors or other similar locally employed non-standard grades, were included within numbers in various grades in the census and not identified separately. Due to concerns following an unexpectedly large increase in the number of senior house officers recorded in the 2002 census, steps were taken to enable NHS trusts to identify trust doctors separately in their census returns. Trust grade data should be treated with caution. Although specific codes for identifying trust doctors in the census have been made available, it appears that NHS organisations have not used these codes consistently.  Source: The Information Centre for health and social care medical and dental Workforce Census.

Doctors: Manpower

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many  (a) doctors and  (b) nurses were employed by the NHS in (i) South Tyneside, (ii) the North East and (iii) England in each year since 1997.

Rosie Winterton: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

Epilepsy

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions have been held with representatives of epilepsy specialist nurses; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: I met with representatives of Epilepsy Action, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Parkinson's Disease Society on 1 May to discuss specialist nursing for long-term neurological conditions. As a result of this meeting, the Department will be working with the voluntary sector to develop good practice guidance that makes the case for, and supports, the further development of specialist nursing roles.

GPs: Manpower

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners per head of population there were in  (a) the Jarrow constituency,  (b) South Tyneside,  (c) the North East and  (d) England in each year since 1997.

Rosie Winterton: The number of general practitioners per 100,000 population is shown in the following table for South Tyneside primary care trust (PCT), the North East and England. Information is collected by PCT and it is not possible to map this to a specific constituency.
	
		
			  General medical practitioners (excluding retainers and registrars)( 1)  per 100,000 head of population for specified organisations,  1997 to 2006, England 
			  Number (headcount) 
			   1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006 
			  England   
			 All GMPs (excluding retainers and registrars) 28,046 28,251 28,467 28,593 28,802 29,202 30,358 31,523 32,738 33,091 
			 All GMPs (excluding retainers and registrars per 100,000 population) 57.6 57.9 58.1 58.1 58.2 58.8 60.9 62.9 64.9 65.3 
			
			  North East   
			 All GMPs (excluding retainers and registrars) 1,432 1,426 1,446 1,453 1,514 1,535 1,611 1,678 1,726 1,815 
			 All GMPs (excluding retainers and registrars per 100,000 population) 55.8 55.7 56.7 57.1 59.6 60.5 63.4 65.9 67.5 70.9 
			  O f which:   
			  South Tyneside PCT   
			 All GMPs (excluding retainers and registrars) — — — — 84 84 88 88 97 100 
			 All GMPs (excluding retainers and registrars per 100,000 population) — — — — 55.0 55.2 58.0 58.1 64.1 66.1 
			 (1) General Medical Practitioners (excluding retainers and registrars) includes GP Providers and GP Others  Notes: 1. Mid-year 2005 population estimates have been used for the 2006 organisation level calculations which are therefore subject to change. 2. Data as at 1 October 1997-99, 30 September 2000-06.  Source: The Information Centre for health and social care General and Personal Medical Services Statistics ONS 2001 based population census

Health Professions: Finance

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding was provided by her Department to the Health Professions Council to support its establishment.

Rosie Winterton: According to our records the amount of funding that was provided to the Health Professions Council for its establishment was £3,804,467.38 between 2002 and 2004.

Health Professions: Length of Service

Brian Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the average length of service was for practising NHS  (a) GPs,  (b) dentists and  (c) hospital consultants in each of the last 15 years;
	(2)  what the average retirement age was for NHS  (a) general practitioners,  (b) dentists and  (c) hospital consultants in each of the last 15 years.

Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally.

Health Services: Private Sector

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS paid to private health care providers in  (a) 1997-98,  (b) 2000-01 and  (c) 2006-07.

Andy Burnham: Information on how much the national health service paid to private health care providers is not separately identified in the annual financial returns of primary care trusts (PCT), health authorities and NHS trusts for 1997-98 or 2000-01.
	Information for 2006-07 is being collected this autumn as part of PCTs' annual accounts.
	For information about expenditure on non-NHS bodies, which include private providers, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 16 April 2007,  Official Report, column 366W, to the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley).

Heart Diseases/Cancer

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the survival rates from  (a) heart attack and  (b) all cancers were in (i) the most recent period for which figures are available, (ii) 1997 and (iii) 1987.

Rosie Winterton: Data to enable assessment of survival after heart attack are not collected centrally. However treatment for heart attack has been audited since 2002 in England. These data indicate that in 2002 the 30-day mortality rate following treatment for heart attack was about 11 per cent. For 2006, the figure was about 9.5 per cent.
	Data source: Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project (MINAP)
	No assessment has been made of survival rates from all cancers for the periods in question.
	Information on one-year and five-year survival rates by individual cancer type is published by the Office for National Statistics. The information has been placed in the Library and is available of their website at:
	www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=861&Pos=3&ColRank=1&Rank=374.
	The last published information covers patients diagnosed with cancer between 1998 and 2001.
	Compared with results for patients diagnosed during 1996-99, the five-year survival figures for patients diagnosed during 1998-2001 were around 2.5 percentage points higher for breast cancer in women and for colon cancer in both men and women. Survival for lung cancer increased slightly, by half a percentage point in men and by just over 1 percentage point in women. For prostate cancer, there was a rise of 6 percentage points, but much of this was due to the increasingly widespread use of prostate-specific antigen testing.

Heart Diseases: Rehabilitation

Phil Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what methodology is used to assess the  (a) quality and  (b) effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation services; what targets have been established in relation to cardiac rehabilitation; and if she will assess the merits of assessing the quality of such rehabilitation services in terms of deaths avoided.

Rosie Winterton: There is an extensive body of evidence to support the effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation.
	The National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD NSF) published in 2000 contained some milestones and a goal for each hospital to reach. This goal stated that every hospital should ensure:
	that all people discharged from hospital with a primary diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction or after coronary revascularisation are offered appropriate cardiac rehabilitation;
	and
	that one year after discharge at least 50 per cent. of survivors are non-smokers, exercise regularly and have a body mass index of less than 30 kg/m2; these should be demonstrated by clinical audit data no more than 12 months old.
	There is evidence including a Healthcare Commission review of the CHD NSF recommendations for cardiac rehabilitation published in March 2005 that there are some aspects of cardiac rehabilitation that need further improvements.
	The need to achieve better information about patterns of service and uptake by patients is being addressed by a new National Cardiac Rehabilitation Audit. It is being developed across England to provide stronger evidence on quality and effectiveness and encourage local areas to appraise and improve their provision of cardiac rehabilitation.

Hospitals: Leeds

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the plans for a children's and maternity hospital in Leeds.

Ivan Lewis: It is the ambition of the national health service in Leeds to centre children's services on one new site in the city.
	That is the stated aim of the Making Leeds Better programme and that remains the case.
	The NHS in Leeds is working to ensure that it meets its next deadline which is for outline business case approval by December next year.
	There will be no decisions on changes to health services in Leeds without full public consultation.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Health Services

Brian Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what assessment she has made of the standard of services and treatment available to people with  (a) ulcerative colitis and  (b) Crohn's disease;
	(2)  how many people were diagnosed with  (a) ulcerative colitis and  (b) Crohn's disease in each of the last five years.

Ivan Lewis: Information on the number of people diagnosed with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease is not collected centrally.
	I have made no assessment of the standard of services and treatment available for those living with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.

Information Prescriptions

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 18 December 2006,  Official Report, column 1711W, on information prescriptions, what criteria were used to select areas for information prescription charges.

Rosie Winterton: It is anticipated that information prescriptions will be delivered free of charge. The bidding criteria sent to prospective pilot organisations has been the basis for their selection.

Information Prescriptions

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 18 December 2006,  Official Report, column 1711W, on information prescriptions, how long she expects trials to last.

Rosie Winterton: It is currently planned that information prescriptions pilots will last for one year until January 2008.

Inter-authority Transfers

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2007,  Official Report, column 44W, on inter-authority transfers, what criteria are used in determining whether to approve an inter-authority transfer.

Andy Burnham: In making inter-authority transfers (IAT), the Secretary of State acts on the advice of strategic health authorities. The requests to make transactions are made through monthly financial monitoring forms. In agreeing each IAT request, the Department validates the respective monitoring forms to ensure that all parties to the transaction have agreed the value, expenditure type and reason for the transfer. All discrepancies are remitted to the individual organisations concerned.

Junior Doctors: Paediatrics

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are taken to ensure that junior doctors (Foundation Year 2 and Senior House Officer) working in paediatrics complete a certified paediatric life support course before being on call in England.

Rosie Winterton: The content and standard of postgraduate medical training is the responsibility of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board, which is the competent authority for postgraduate medical training in the United Kingdom. Its role is that of custodian of quality standards in postgraduate medical education and practice. It is not practicable or desirable for the Government to prescribe the exact training that any individual doctor will receive. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health recommends courses run by the Advanced Life Support Group which is a registered medical education charity.

Junior Doctors: Training

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many post graduate training posts there were  (a) in total and  (b) for GP positions for junior doctors in each year since 1997.

Rosie Winterton: The number of post graduate posts and junior doctors posts funded by the Department from the Medical and Dental Education and Training Levy (MADEL) from 2003-04 to 2007-08 are shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Number of MADEL funded posts, 2003-04 to 2007-08 
			   Number of posts 
			   2003-04  2004-05  2005-06  2006-07  2007-08 
			 Total posts funded from MADEL 35,878 36,833 37,427 37,611 39,326 
			 GP registrars and pre registration house officers funded from MADEL 2,402 2,726 2,911 2,902 2,902 
			  Notes: 1. 2007-08 MADEL figures include 351 SHO posts and 527 SpR posts that are rebased from service. 2. Due to changes in methodology, MADEL figures are not available prior to 2003-04.  Source: MADEL allocations data

Junior Doctors: Training

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking to increase the number of posts available for junior doctors applying for speciality training in 2007; and what help she plans to offer to junior doctors who do not get a training post this year.

Rosie Winterton: The Department is discussing with the medical Royal Colleges and postgraduate deans the opportunities to create additional training posts in 2007.
	In addition, the Department is working up a package of measures with key stakeholders to support junior doctors who do not get a training post this year. Key stakeholders include the medical Royal Colleges, British Medical Association, strategic health authorities, postgraduate deans, deaneries, employers and NHS Employers.

Junior Doctors: Training

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the ratio of posts to applicants was for speciality training for junior doctors in  (a) 2005,  (b) 2000 and  (c) 1997;
	(2)  how many junior doctors applied for but did not obtain speciality training posts in  (a) 2005,  (b) 2000 and  (c) 1997.

Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not held centrally.

Maternity Services

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will take steps to implement a separate payment by results tariff for neonatal transport; and if she will make a statement.

Andy Burnham: We have modified the reference costs collection for 2006-07 to separately identify patient transport services.
	This would allow a separate tariff to be constructed for neonatal transport. The earliest date this tariff could be implemented is 2009-10.
	However, we are currently consulting on the future of payment by results. No decisions will be made on a tariff for 2009-10 until this is completed. The "Options for the Future of Payment by Results: 2008-09-2010-11" consultation document was published on 15 March 2007. This is available in the Library.

Maternity Services

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 22 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1141W, what information her Department took into account in drawing up the four national choice guarantees in "Maternity Matters"; and what  (a) information will be collected and  (b) research will be undertaken to assist in implementing the guarantees by the end of 2009.

Ivan Lewis: "Maternity Matters" was drawn up to meet the key commitments on choice made in the maternity standard of the 2004 national service framework for children, young people and maternity services; the 2005 manifesto and the 2006 White Paper "Our Health, our care, our say". An indicator will be developed for "Maternity Matters" together with some baseline indicators being developed through the Healthcare Commission's local patient experience survey this summer.
	The national health service operating framework 2007-08 includes maternity as an area for preparatory work by primary care trusts to support the commitments for 2009, using 2007-08 to assess current services, identify gaps and any barriers to service development and to set out their local strategy for meeting these commitments.

Medicine: Students

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether applicants to medical schools are asked about their views on  (a) abortion,  (b) contraception,  (c) euthanasia and  (d) assisted dying; and if she will make a statement.

Rosie Winterton: All aspects of selection and admission are the responsibility of individual higher education institutions (HEIs) and medical schools. HEIs are independent, autonomous bodies responsible for their own assessment procedures and course arrangements. Ministers are precluded by legislation from intervening in their internal affairs.

Mentally Ill: Discharges

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were  (a) on supervision registers and  (b) subject to supervised discharge in each year since 1997.

Rosie Winterton: Information on the numbers of people subject to supervised discharge at any one time is not available. The number of patients in national health service facilities since 1997 who became subject to supervised discharge is shown in the table.
	
		
			   Number 
			 1997-98 318 
			 1998-99 445 
			 1999-2000 562 
			 2000-01 582 
			 2001-02 582 
			 2002-03 602 
			 2003-04 608 
			 2004-05 643 
			 2005-06 615 
			  Note: No information is held centrally on the number of people on supervision registers.  Source:  Information Centre published data forms KH16 and KP90

Midwives

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many midwives were  (a) trained and  (b) recruited in each of the last three years; and what recent estimate she has made of the average distance travelled by an expectant mother to access (i) a midwife-led maternity unit and (ii) a consultant-led maternity hospital.

Rosie Winterton: The table shows the number of students who entered training to be a midwife in the last three years.
	The Department does not collect centrally information on how many of these were recruited into the national health service.
	The average distance of a woman from a midwife led maternity unit is 10 (9.93) miles and the average distance of a woman from a consultant led hospital is five (4.75) miles.
	
		
			  NHS midwifery training places commissioned 2003-06 
			   2003-04  2004-05  2005-06 
			 Degree 753 895 1,042 
			 Diploma 716 744 517 
			 Other 757 735 661 
			 Total 2,226 2,374 2,220 
			  Source: Quarterly Monitoring Returns

Modernising Medical Services: Resignations

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what date the head of Modernising Medical Services resigned; and if she will place a copy of his resignation letter and her response in the Library.

Rosie Winterton: Professor Alan Crockard tendered his resignation as National Director for Modernising Medical Careers on 29 March 2007.
	It is not intended to place a copy of the letter in the Library.

Multiple Sclerosis: Medical Treatments

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many multiple sclerosis specialist nurses worked in  (a) Jarrow constituency,  (b) South Tyneside,  (c) the North East and  (d) England in each year since 1997.

Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally. Multiple sclerosis specialist nurses are not separately identifiable in the work force census from the rest of the nursing work force.

NHS Resource Accounting and Budgeting Regime

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to her statement of 28 March 2007,  Official Report, columns 96-98WS, on the NHS resource accounting and budgeting regime, for what reason the £450 million contingency reserve is being allocated to strategic health authorities (SHAs) in line with the resource allocation formula; how each SHA's share is calculated in relation to the resource allocation formula; and what each SHA's contribution to the £450 million contingency reserve has been.

Andy Burnham: The Department was clear that strategic health authorities (SHAs) should take a pragmatic and sensible approach to managing the finances in 2006-07, including the identification of a contingency.
	The contingency is not new money provided by the Department. The package of NHS central programme budget funding was identified for SHAs as a single amount from which SHAs in agreement with local stakeholders developed plans on how best to deploy this funding. This allowed SHAs to set aside £450 million as a contingency.
	The £450 million contingency was distributed to SHAs pro-rata to revenue allocation targets. The SHA level targets were calculated by aggregating the 2006-07 closing revenue allocation targets for each SHA's constituent primary care trusts. This is in line with other revenue allocations that are made using the fair funding formula that directs funding to towards those areas with the greatest need. This approach was agreed with SHAs.

NHS: Consultants

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was paid to consultants in fees and expenses by  (a) her Department and  (b) the NHS in each year since 1997.

Andy Burnham: The Department does not collect information in such a way to identify the fees and expenses paid to consultants. Information on the fees and expenses of consultants in the national health service trusts is not collected centrally.

NHS: Contracts

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what she expects the estimated change in costs to the NHS to be of implementing the new General Medical Services contract in each of the years to 2011-12.

Andy Burnham: The change in spend on primary medical care services, since the introduction of the new general medical services (GMS) contract in 2003-04, is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Financial year  Total spend (£ billion)  Change in costs (£ billion)  Percentage 
			 2002-03 (pre-nGMS baseline) 5.0 0 0 
			 2003-04 5.8 0.8 16 
			 2004-05 6.9 1.9 38 
			 2005-06 7.7 2.7 54 
			 2006-07 (estimated) 7.7 2.7 54 
			  Note: Estimates for 2007-08 onwards are not available.

NHS: Equal Pay

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial provision she has made to fulfil the terms of the Equal Pay Act 1970 in the individual budgets of  (a) primary care trusts and  (b) NHS trusts in the Eastern Region (i) in 2006-07 and (ii) in subsequent years.

Rosie Winterton: There are around 120 equal pay claims outstanding against national health service organisations in the NHS East of England area. It is not possible to estimate what, if any, additional cost will arise from these claims as there are a number of significant legal issues which need to be resolved before liability can be assessed.

NHS: Finance

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 26 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1369W, on NHS: finance, what discussions gave rise to the confirmation with officials from the Welsh Assembly Government referred to in the answer of 18 December 2006,  Official Report, column 1720W, on NHS expenditure; and when these discussions took place.

Andy Burnham: National health services expenditure data and population estimates for Wales were provided directly by the National Assembly for Wales.
	This work was commissioned by Department in July 2006. Discussions were limited to agreeing time scales, and as noted in the previous answer (answer of 18 December 2006,  Official Report, column 1720W), improving consistency by excluding expenditure on departmental administration.
	However, detailed methodological discussions did not take place as Department has no authority over the work of Devolved Assemblies.

NHS: Finance

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what NHS expenditure in England was as a percentage of gross domestic product in each year since 1992; and what estimates she has made of NHS expenditure in England as a percentage of gross domestic product in each of the next 10 years.

Andy Burnham: The Department does not report on national health service expenditure in England as a percentage of gross domestic product.

NHS: Finance

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the gross deficit was of each NHS individual accounting unit in the latest year for which figures are available, broken down by decile.

Andy Burnham: The information is as follows:
	
		
			  NHS organisation  2006-07 forecast outturn month 9 (£000)  2006-07 month 9 cumulative gross deficit (£000)  Decile marker  Comments 
			 Hillingdon PCT (59,099) (59,099)   
			 Norfolk PCT (41,543) (100,642)   
			 Cumbria PCT (38,300) (138,942) 10th Cumulative deficit totals 10 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Cambridgeshire PCT (36,900) (175,842)   
			 Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust (36,079) (211,921)   
			 North Yorkshire and York PCT (35,000) (246,921)   
			 Leicestershire County and Rutland PCT (33,888) (280,809) 20th Cumulative deficit totals 20 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Suffolk PCT (30,900) (311,709)   
			 Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust (30,405) (342,114)   
			 Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust (29,902) (372,016)   
			 Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (29,800) (401,816) 30th Cumulative deficit totals 30 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Surrey PCT (26,052) (427,868)   
			 North West London Hospitals NHS Trust (25,619) (453,487)   
			 West Herefordshire PCT (24,321) (477,808)   
			 East and North Herefordshire PCT (23,527) (501,335)   
			 Wiltshire PCT (23,493) (524,828)   
			 Kingston PCT (22,500) (547,328) 40th Cumulative deficit totals 40 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Mid Essex PCT (20,052) (567,380)   
			 East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT (19,986) (587,366)   
			 Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (18,545) (605,911)   
			 Brent Teaching PCT (17,600) (623,511)   
			 Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust (15,800) (639,311)   
			 Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospital NHS (15,741) (655,052)   
			 Buckingham PCT (15,200) (670,252) 50th Cumulative deficit totals 50 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (14,802) (685,054)   
			 Worcestershire PCT (14,464) (699,518)   
			 Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (13,900) (713,418)   
			 United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (13,800) (727,218)   
			 Sheffield PCT (13,575) (740,793)   
			 Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (13,500) (754,293)   
			 West Kent PCT (13,000) (767,293)   
			 Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (13,000) (780,293)   
			 Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust (12,894) (793,187) 60th Cumulative deficit totals 60 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Sutton And Merton PCT (12,700) (805,887)   
			 East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust (12,500) (818,387)   
			 North Somerset PCT (12,440) (830,827)   
			 The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust (11,956) (842,783)   
			 West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust (11,500) (854,283)   
			 West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust (11,100) (865,383)   
			 Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (11,000) (876,383)   
			 Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Trust (10,986) (887,369)   
			 Leicester City PCT (10,900) (898,269)   
			 South Warwickshire General Hospitals NHS Trust (10,789) (909,058)   
			 West Sussex Teaching PCT (10,695) (919,753)   
			 Coventry Teaching PCT (10,500) (930,253) 70th Cumulative deficit totals 70 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Devon PCT (10,452) (940,705)   
			 Hounslow PCT (10,305) (951,010)   
			 Northamptonshire Teaching PCT (10,000) (961,010)   
			 North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust (9,800) (970,810)   
			 Bexley Care PCT (9,700) (980,510)   
			 Stoke on Trent Teaching PCT (9,500) (990,010)   
			 Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust (9,409) (999,419)   
			 Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust (9,022) (1,008,441)   
			 North Lincolnshire PCT (8,983) (1,017,424)   
			 Warwickshire PCT (8,950) (1,026,374)   
			 Milton Keynes PCT (8,801) (1,035,175)   
			 East Riding of Yorkshire PCT (8,717) (1,043,892)   
			 South Staffordshire PCT (8,700) (1,052,592)   
			 Northumberland Care PCT (8,600) (1,061,192) 80th Cumulative deficit totals 80 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (8,500) (1,069,692)   
			 Bedfordshire PCT (7,853) (1,077,545)   
			 Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust (7,500) (1,085,045)   
			 Weston Area Health NHS Trust (7,500) (1,092,545)   
			 Enfield PCT (7,278) (1,099,823)   
			 Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust (7,277) (1,107,100)   
			 Scarborough and NE Yorks NHS Trust (7,200) (1,114,300)   
			 Lewisham PCT (6,500) (1,120,800)   
			 Sandwell PCT (6,373) (1,127,173)   
			 University Hospitals Of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust (6,357) (1,133,530)   
			 Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (6,300) (1.139,830)   
			 Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust (6,066) (1,145,896)   
			 East Cheshire NHS Trust (5,950) (1,151,846)   
			 North Staffordshire PCT (5,692) (1,157,538)   
			 Yorkshire and The Humber Regional Ambulance Service (5,608) (1,163,146)   
			 Havering PCT (5,601) (1,168,747)   
			 St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust (5,500) (1,174,247)   
			 Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust (5,363) (1,179,610)   
			 Great Yarmouth and Waveney Teaching PCT (5,131) (1,184,741)   
			 Kirklees PCT (5,100) (1,189,841) 90th Cumulative deficit totals 90 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit 
			 Berkshire East Teaching PCT (5,000) (1,194,841)   
			 Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (5,000) (1,199,841)   
			 North East Essex PCT (4,989) (1,204,830)   
			 Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust (4,949) (1,209,779)   
			 Barnsley PCT (4,734) (1,214,513)   
			 Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust (4,560) (1,219,073)   
			 West Middlesex University NHS Trust (4,453) (1,223,526)   
			 Berkshire West PCT (4,362) (1,227,888)   
			 Newham PCT (4,124) (1,232,012)   
			 Gloucestershire PCT (4,100) (1,236,112)   
			 Oxfordshire PCT (4,000) (1,240,112)   
			 Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust (4,000) (1,244,112)   
			 Shropshire County PCT (3,900) (1,248,012)   
			 Croydon PCT (3,800) (1,251,812)   
			 Birmingham East and North PCT (3,700) (1,255,512)   
			 Barnet PCT (3,615) (1,259,127)   
			 South Gloucestershire PCT (3,500) (1,262,627)   
			 East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust (3,400) (1,266,027)   
			 Worcestershire MH Partnership NHS Trust (3,084) (1,269,111)   
			 Southwark PCT (3,000) (1,272,111)   
			 Waltham Forest PCT (2,900) (1,275,011)   
			 Manchester Health and Social Care NHS Trust (2,845) (1,277,856)   
			 Brighton and Hove City PCT (2,627) (1,280,483)   
			 Newham University Hospital NHS Trust (2,516) (1,282,999)   
			 Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust (2,500) (1,285,499)   
			 Islington PCT (2,404) (1,287,903)   
			 Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (2,268) (1,290,171)   
			 Cornwall and Isle of Scilly PCT (2,000) (1,292,171)   
			 York Hospitals NHS Trust (2,000) (1,294,171)   
			 Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust (1,800) (1,295,971)   
			 Richmond and Twickenham PCT (1,526) (1,297,497)   
			 Rob Jones and A Hunt Orthopaedic NHS Trust (1,503) (1,299,000)   
			 Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust (1,500) (1,300,500)   
			 Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (1,500) (1,302,000)   
			 Warrington PCT (1,495) (1,303,495)   
			 West Essex PCT (1,400) (1,304,895)   
			 Camden PCT (1,400) (1,306,295)   
			 Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Trust (1,395) (1,307,690)   
			 Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust (1,250) (1,308,940)   
			 The Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust (1,115) (1,310,055)   
			 Stockport PCT (1,063) (1,311,118)   
			 Solihull Care Trust PCT (1,000) (1,312,118)   
			 Ealing PCT (1,000) (1,313,118)   
			 Westminster PCT (784) (1,313,902)   
			 Greenwich Teaching PCT (750) (1,314,652)   
			 Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust (700) (1,315,352)   
			 Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire MH Partnership (650) (1,316,002)   
			 Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust (600) (1,316,602)   
			 George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust (477) (1,317,079)   
			 Kensington and Chelsea PCT (455) (1,317,534)   
			 Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust (440) (1,317,974)   
			 Bath and North East Somerset PCT (250) (1,318,224)   
			 South Staffordshire Healthcare NHS Trust (56) (1,318,280) 100th Cumulative deficit totals 100 per cent. of total NHS gross deficit

NHS: Secondment

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 30 April 2007,  Official Report, column 1514W, on the NHS: secondment, whether her Department keeps a record of secondees from the NHS to other Government Departments.

Rosie Winterton: The Department does not keep a record of secondees from the national health service to other Government Departments.

NHS: Vacancies

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which clinical specialties are experiencing shortages of practitioners; and how she plans to take this into account in forming policy on training posts in the NHS.

Rosie Winterton: Forecasts of future work force supply at a national level (England) are undertaken by the Workforce Review Team (WRT) on behalf of the strategic health authorities (SHAs). Annual meetings are held by WRT with representatives from the SHAs, specialty, the Department and other key stakeholders to assess the present and future training needs of the work force. Annual recommendations to SHAs regarding future pre and post-registration training are produced following these meetings. Individual SHAs and deaneries are responsible for planning the medical training posts at local level, taking into account the analysis and recommendations of the WRT.
	WRT produces proformas for each specialty and profession it reviews. These are updated regularly and contain the evidence on which the recommendations are based. These proformas can be viewed at:
	http://www.healthcareworkforce.nhs.uk/workforce reviewteam.html
	It is the responsibility of primary care trusts and SHAs to analyse their local situation and develop plans, in liaison with their local national health service trusts and primary care providers, to deliver high quality NHS services and take action to recruit and train the appropriate staff required to deliver these services.

Non-resuscitation

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance has been issued to NHS trusts on the steps which should be taken before a decision not to resuscitate a patient is taken.

Rosie Winterton: The Department issued a circular in 2000 (HSC 2000/028) asking trusts to make sure that they have appropriate resuscitation policies which respect patients' rights and to audit these policies. It has also endorsed guidance on making resuscitation decisions drawn up by the Resuscitation Council, British Medical Association and Royal College of Nursing for health professionals and the public.

Nurse Training Commissions

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking to encourage strategic health authorities to reverse the recent reductions in nurse training commissions, further to her Department's third draft of the NHS Pay and Workforce Strategy, dated 27 November 2006.

Rosie Winterton: Strategic health authorities are expected to commission training places based on the work force needed to deliver services work required by patients. This will be reinforced by a service level agreement setting out the key priorities for them to address in 2007-08.

Nurses: Pay

Brian Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average nurse's wage was in each of the last 15 years.

Rosie Winterton: The following table shows average earnings per full-time equivalent nurse for each year since 1997-98. The figures are determined from pay bill data from financial returns and staff numbers from the workforce census. Data for years prior to 1997-98 are not available on a comparable basis.
	
		
			   Average pay for nurses (£) 
			 1997-98 20,760 
			 1998-99 20,972 
			 1999-2000 22,280 
			 2000-01 23,371 
			 2001-02 24,673 
			 2002-03 25,613 
			 2003-04 26,236 
			 2004-05 27,836 
			 2005-06 29,010 
			 2006-07 (1)30,507 
			 2007-08 (1)31,826 
			 (1 )Figures are estimated projections and are subject to change.

Nurses: Training

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many  (a) nurses and  (b) general practitioners are in training in (i) South Tyneside, (ii) the North East and (iii) England; and how many were in each year since 1997.

Rosie Winterton: The number of nursing training commissions for England and the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority (SHA) is shown in the following table. Training commissions for Northumberland, Tyne and Wear is not comparable prior to 2003-04 due to SHA mergers.
	
		
			  Pre-registration nursing training commissions 
			   England  Northumberland, Tyne and Wear 
			   Diploma  Degree  Total  Diploma  Degree  Total 
			 1996-97 13,011 297 13,308 — — — 
			 1997-98 14,429 297 14,726 — — — 
			 1998-99 15,523 1,314 16,837 — — — 
			 1999-2000 15,966 1,726 17,692 — — — 
			 2000-01 16,779 2,144 18,923 — — — 
			 2001-02 18,141 2,483 20,624 — — — 
			 2002-03 18,980 2,543 21,523 — — — 
			 2003-04 19,957 2,858 22,815 546 72 618 
			 2004-05 19,993 3,384 23,377 552 123 675 
			 2005-06 19,648 3,582 23,230 545 123 668 
			  Source: Non-medical education and training quarterly monitoring, Department of Health 
		
	
	The number of general practitioners registrars is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  General practitioner s  registrars for specified organisations, 1997-2002 ,  England 
			  Number (headcount) 
			   1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006 
			 England 1,343 1,446 1,520 1,659 1,883 1,980 2,235 2,562 2,564 2,278 
			 North East 53 80 74 83 89 110 130 147 147 180 
			  O f which:   
			 South Tyneside Primary Care Trust — — — — 3 3 3 5 7 8 
			  Source: The Information Centre for health and social care general and personal medical services statistics

Patients: Mortality Rates

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the patient mortality rates were in each NHS Trust in each year since 2001; and if she will make a statement.

Andy Burnham: Data showing mortality rates in each national health service trust in each year since 2001 have been placed in the Library.

Patients: Disclosure of Information

Oliver Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what NHS policy is on the circumstances under which patient information may be provided over the telephone by NHS staff to people other than the patient.

Rosie Winterton: The National Health Service Confidentiality Code of Practice, published in November 2003, provides guidance on required practice for those who work within or under contract to NHS organisations about the safeguarding of confidentiality, and patients' consent to the use of their health records.
	The guidance includes an explanation of the main relevant legal requirements, and examples of appropriate information disclosure decisions in practice. The guidance applies equally to clinicians, managers, and all other staff in both primary and secondary care settings whose work involves access to personal information and, where appropriate, includes staff in the private and voluntary sectors.
	A full version of the code can be downloaded from the Department's website at www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/06/92/54/04069254.pdf. The code has been endorsed by the Information Commissioner, the General Medical Council, and the British Medical Association. The code is applicable irrespective of the method by which patient information is supplied to a third party.
	Strong disincentives exist which protect against abuse of patient confidentiality. NHS organisations are responsible, as employers, for the actions taken on their behalf by their employees, and for disciplining their staff when they behave inappropriately. Accessing personal information without a legitimate reason constitutes a breach of the code. Staff who breach patient confidentiality are subject to professional disciplinary measures. Offending doctors and nurses will be reported to their professional regulatory bodies and may face additional disciplinary action, including losing their licence to practice. Separate legal penalties for individuals and organisations misusing personal health and other information are provided for under section 60 of the Data Protection Act.

Robotic Prostatectomy

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in how many NHS trusts there are facilities to perform robotic prostatectomy, referred to in her Department's report Saws and Scalpels to Lasers and Robots, published on 17 April 2007; and whether the facilities in each trust were purchased  (a) entirely with NHS funds and  (b) with a contribution from the charitable sector.

Andy Burnham: This information is not held centrally.

Smoking

Anthony D Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the likely impact of the ban on smoking in public places on cancer rates.

Caroline Flint: No estimate has been made specifically on the likely impact of smokefree legislation on cancer rates.
	The Government's independent Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health has concluded on the basis of an extensive review of medical and scientific evidence that there is an overall 24 per cent. increased risk of lung cancer in non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke. In March 2005, the  British Medical Journal published a research paper by Professor K. Jamrozik suggesting that across the United Kingdom, exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace is to be responsible for the deaths of more than two employed people per working day, 617 deaths a year. Of this number, the research attributed 160 deaths from exposure to secondhand smoke to lung cancer (a copy of this article is available in the Library).
	While the primary aim of smokefree legislation is to protect employees and members of the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke in enclosed workplaces and public places, the Department also anticipates that many smokers will be motivated by the implementation of the new law to quit smoking. The Department estimates that the new smokefree law might reduce smoking prevalence among the general population in England by around 1.7 percentage points, or an estimated 600,000 people.
	While smoking is closely related to lung cancer with 87 per cent. of all deaths from lung cancer being attributable to smoking, smoking is also a cause of other types of cancer including cancers of the oesophagus, bladder, kidney, stomach and pancreas. The expected reduction in smoking prevalence from the implementation of smokefree legislation will help to reduce rates of smoking-related cancer.

Speech Therapy: Manpower

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress her Department has made in reaching its target of 58 per cent. more speech and language therapists in posts by 2010.

Rosie Winterton: No target has been set for speech and language therapy posts.
	The headcount number of speech and language therapists has increased by 1,888 (39 per cent.) since 1997.

Spinal Injuries

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people with serious spinal injuries were treated in  (a) district general hospitals and  (b) specialist spinal injury units in each of the last 10 years.

Ivan Lewis: Information on the number of people treated with a serious spinal injury, broken down by place of treatment, is not collected centrally.

Spinal Injuries: Life Expectancy

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the life expectancy of the victims of serious spinal injuries; and what provision her Department has made for treatment of such injuries in the next 10 years.

Ivan Lewis: I have made no assessment of the life expectancy for victims of serious spinal injuries.
	It is the responsibility of local health bodies to ensure the provision of health and social care for those living with such injuries.

Surgery

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what population she expects the specialist surgical centres referred to on page four of her Department's report Saws and Scalpels to Lasers and Robots, published 17th April 2007, to serve.

Andy Burnham: In his report, Professor Darzi set out his vision for surgery in the future. The population to be served by a specialist centre will vary by speciality and needs to take account of local circumstances.

Surgery: Hertfordshire

Michael Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many operations were cancelled at  (a) the Hemel Hempstead Acute NHS Trust Hospital and  (b) the Watford Acute Trust Hospital (i) for medical reasons and (ii) because of a lack of beds in each month in each year since 2000.

Andy Burnham: Information on the number of cancelled operations for medical reasons is not held centrally. Information is collected by acute trust, the following table shows the number of last minute cancelled operations for non clinical reasons.
	
		
			  West Hertfordshire Hospitals National Health Service Trust, quarter 1 2001-02 to quarter 3 2006-07( 1) 
			   Quarter  Number of last minute cancelled operations for non clinical reasons 
			 2001-02 Q1 124 
			 2001-02 Q2 117 
			 2001-02 Q3 148 
			 2001-02 Q4 173 
			
			 2002-03 Q1 69 
			 2002-03 Q2 73 
			 2002-03 Q3 40 
			 2002-03 Q4 62 
			
			 2003-04 Q1 164 
			 2003-04 Q2 142 
			 2003-04 Q3 208 
			 2003-04 Q4 301 
			
			 2004-05 Q1 164 
			 2004-05 Q2 153 
			 2004-05 Q3 189 
			 2004-05 Q4 160 
			
			 2005-06 Q1 99 
			 2005-06 Q2 100 
			 2005-06 Q3 243 
			 2005-06 Q4 179 
			
			 2006-07 Q1 175 
			 2006-07 Q2 208 
			 2006-07 Q3 268 
			 (1) Latest data available.  Notes: 1. A last minute cancellation is one that occurs on the day the patient was due to arrive, after they have arrived in hospital or on the day of their operation. 2. Data were collected at health authority-level only prior to 2001-02. 3. Trust-level data were collected from 2001-02 onwards.  Source: Department of Health dataset QMCO

Surgery: St. George's Hospital Tooting

Henry Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what steps she is taking in relation to the return of statistics on cancelled operations at St. George's hospital, Tooting in September and October 2001; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  what steps have been taken in response to the inquiry by David Sissing into the actions of Ian Perkin while employed by St. George's hospital, Tooting; and if she will make a statement.

Andy Burnham: This is a local matter. However, NHS London advises that the former South West London strategic health authority and St. George's Healthcare national health service trust reviewed all the recommendations relating to their respective organisations, and has been assured that all necessary actions have been carried out.

West Hertfordshire Acute Hospital Trust: Manpower

Michael Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent  (a) medical consultants,  (b) other medical staff,  (c) nurses,  (d) other professional staff,  (e) administrative and clerical staff and  (f) auxiliary staff were employed by West Hertfordshire Acute Hospital Trust in all areas excluding those transferred to Dacorum Primary Care Trust in each year since 2000.

Andy Burnham: The table shows the number of national health service staff in West Hertfordshire Hospitals National Health Service Trust by main staff group as at 30 September 2006, for each year since 2000. It is not possible to exclude staff transferring from Dacorum Primary Care Trust.
	
		
			  Full-time equivalent 
			   2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006( 1) 
			 West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust 3,075 3,546 3,563 3,900 4,055 3,704 3,601 
			 
			 All medical and dental staff 415 431 434 426 497 480 504 
			 
			 All dental staff 8 3 4 3 4 7 7 
			 
			 All medical staff 407 428 430 423 493 473 496 
			 Consultant 143 161 159 156 161 153 152 
			 Other medical staff 264 267 271 267 332 320 344 
			 
			 All non-medical staff 2,660 3,115 3^129 3,474 3,558 3,224 3,098 
			 
			 Professionally qualified clinical staff 1,553 1,734 1,671 1,768 1,804 1,592 1,619 
			 Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff 1,091 1,259 1,176 1,301 1,321 1,208 1,237 
			 Qualified scientific, therapeutic and technical staff 462 475 495 467 483 384 382 
			 Qualified allied health professions 172 180 199 190 199 150 148 
			 Qualified healthcare scientists n/a n/a n/a 170 176 142 145 
			 Other qualified scientific, therapeutic and technical staff 290 295 296 106 108 92 89 
			 
			 Support to clinical staff 740 900 919 1,132 1,171 1,050 960 
			 Support to doctors and nursing staff 630 781 786 904 888 817 731 
			 Support to ST and T staff 110 119 133 227 283 233 230 
			 
			 NHS infrastructure support 366 481 539 574 583 583 518 
			 Central functions 240 289 299 380 391 397 350 
			 Hotel, property and estates 53 106 95 116 112 101 92 
			 Managers and senior managers 74 85 144 78 81 85 76 
			 n/a = not available (1) More accurate validation processes in 2006 have resulted in the identification and removal of 9858 duplicate non-medical staff records out of the total workforce figure of 1.3 million in 2006. Earlier years' figures could not be accurately validated in this way and so will be slightly inflated. The level of inflation in earlier years figures is estimated to be less than 1 per cent. of total across all non-medical staff groups for headcount figures (and negligible for full-time equivalents). This should be taken into consideration when analysing trends over time.  Source: The Information Centre

Wheelchairs: Children

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what assessment she has made of the extent to which NHS eligibility criteria for the provision of wheelchairs and mobility equipment supports the delivery of the five key outcomes envisaged by Every Child Matters;
	(2)  what guidance is being produced to support the role of primary care trusts and local education authorities to jointly commission and jointly resource wheelchair services for children and young people in line with Standard 8 of the National Service Framework for Children;
	(3)  what steps she is taking to ensure that disabled children and young people are provided with a wheelchair which meets their clinical, social and educational needs;
	(4)  what the average waiting times were for children and young people under the age of 18 years following assessment to receive  (a) a lightweight manual and  (b) a powered indoor and outdoor wheelchair in each of the last three years;
	(5)  what percentage of children under the age of 18 years who met local eligibility criteria received a powered indoor and outdoor wheelchair within  (a) three months,  (b) six months and  (c) one year of an assessment in the last three years for which figures are available.

Ivan Lewis: The Department for Education and Skills leads the cross-government programme Every Child Matters; Change for Children but it is not responsible for all aspects of policy on children. The Department of Health is responsible for the health of disabled children and for wheelchair services for adults and children. It therefore leads the Be Healthy strand of the Every Child Matters programme.
	The Department has made it clear that eligibility for services and support is for councils to determine in a locally consistent manner. We believe that local-decision making by councils is an important means by which local people have the opportunity to influence decisions about resources, charging and priorities.
	The Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) report "Out and About", which was published on 20 October 2006, highlights the importance of services being committed to standard 8 of the Children's National Service Framework (NSF). The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) will be referring to the best practice checklist, contained in the report, as part of their inspection process and will be specifically including wheelchair services.
	The Transforming Community Equipment and Wheelchair Services (TCEWS) programme is looking at how best to address the issues the services face through development of a new delivery model in collaboration with stakeholders. The Department for Education and Skills is working closely with us on this ongoing programme of work. We anticipate that the new model will be capable of implementation by April 2008.
	The TCEWS programme was able to develop two potential models for wheelchair services in collaboration with users and their carers, seven wheelchair services, the wheelchair services managers and to refine the potential models with practitioners and suppliers. Further data are required before recommendations can be made for the way forward. A further data gathering exercise has been approved and an update will be provided in autumn 2007.
	As part of our commitment set out in the Children's NSF, we presented, on 16 April 2006, a new self-assessment tool for commissioners of children's and young people's health services. The tool will play an important role in ensuring that all commissioners are equipped and able to deliver improved quality and outcomes for services for children and young people.
	We are currently consulting on the Commissioning Framework for Health and Wellbeing which sets out how local commissioners can successfully commission services that improve health and well-being and help people remain independent. It also consults on a new duty for local authorities and primary care trusts to work together on a joint strategic needs assessment. This will outline current and predicted needs of the local population so providers can best promote the health and wellbeing of their local populations, particularly those groups that currently get a poor response from services.
	Every Child Matters aims to improve outcomes for disabled children through better integration of services, at strategic and operational levels, including the pooling of budgets. The introduction of children's trust arrangements should see services coming together to provide more joined-up and coherent services and make a major contribution to the NSF standard eight vision for equipment provision.
	The Department does not collect centrally the average waiting times for children and young people under the age of 18 following assessment to receive a lightweight manual and a powered indoor and outdoor wheelchair in each of the last three years.
	The Department does not collect centrally the data for the percentage of children under the age of 18 years who met local eligibility criteria received a powered indoor and outdoor wheelchair within three months, six months and one year of an assessment in the last three years.